me on dublin city fm xmas 2011
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999 - fire service - there’s a fire in my house - please hold for credit card payment clearance
^1 ^2 Yesterday in Dublin the new stealth tax of charging people for a call out of the Fire Brigade began. House fire call out will cost home owners €500 per call.
But there is some irony about the Irish Insurance Federation taking a position on this. Stealing the words from Joe Higgins mouth ^3 the industry federation calls it a double tax. and I don’t argue that it isn’t a shame on the city council for forcing in this unjust tax. But the origins of a municipal public funded free at the point of use fire tender service was invented purely due to the greed of insurance companies.
from ^4 Irish Fires Services / History
“At this time with the expansion and increase of wealth in the city it was the insurance brigades which had become the main fire fighting force. Dressed in brightly coloured costumes with the badges of their company on their uniforms and supplied with engines by the companies these men attended fires only in building which displayed the mark of their own insurance company. Later on cooperation did develop between the companies. The crew of the engine which arrived first received the highest amount of pay.”
The competition and greed of the insurance companies helped force the city to set up a publicly funded service in 1862. 150 years later Ireland demonstrates how we are returning to these dark ages where the uninsured or the not so sure, will hesitate to call the fire brigade as Dublin burns and lives are lost. Dublin City Council say this charge “will not be an issue” ^5 can they measure this?
Story links
^1 http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0116/firebrigade.html
^2 http://www.herald.ie/news/safety-fears-over-500-fire-service-callout-fee-2989…
^3 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0117/1224310362756.html
^4 http://irishfireservices.ie/dublin-fire-brigade/history
^5 http://url.ie/dzyp
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Campaign Against Household & Water Tax Kinsealy
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Household Tax site in breach of privacy law
Press Statement: Paul Murphy MEP (Socialist Party / United Left
Alliance) 4 January 2011
Household Tax site in breach of privacy law Paul Murphy MEP lodges complaint with Data Commissioner
Socialist Party / United Left Alliance MEP for Dublin and
anti-household tax campaigner, Paul Murphy, has lodged a complaint
with the Data Commissioner about the Household Tax site,
www.householdcharge.ie.
“The government is starting to roll out a massive propaganda campaign
to get people to register for and pay the unjust household tax.
However, the site they are encouraging people to register on is in
breach of the 2011 regulations on “Privacy and Electronic
Communications” which implements EU directives on privacy.
“The website’s privacy statement declares that the site uses ‘session
cookies’ which are erased after use, whereas in fact it uses so-called
‘persistent cookies’ that remain on people’s computers after they
visit the website. This is a breach of the 2011 regulations and I have
made a complaint to the Data Commissioner about it.
“People should not register or pay on this site. Instead, they should
join the Campaign against Household and Water Taxes and work to
establish such mass non-registration and non-payment that this tax
will be uncollectable.”
ENDS
[PMPress]
Note for editor:
The www.householdcharge.ie site is in breach of the 2011 regulations
(EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS AND
SERVICES) (PRIVACY AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS) REGULATIONS 2011),
available here http://www.dataprotection.ie/documents/legal/SI336of2011.pdf
. In particular, it is in breach of section 5, part 3, which reads:
“(3) A person shall not use an electronic communications network to store information, or to gain access to information already stored in the terminal equipment of a subscriber or user, unless (a) the subscriber or user has given his or her consent to that use, and (b) the subscriber or user has been provided with clear and
comprehensive information in accordance with the Data Protection Acts
which— (i) is both prominently displayed and easily accessible, and (ii) includes, without limitation, the purposes of the processing of the information.”
Alliance) 4 January 2011
Household Tax site in breach of privacy law Paul Murphy MEP lodges complaint with Data Commissioner
Socialist Party / United Left Alliance MEP for Dublin and
anti-household tax campaigner, Paul Murphy, has lodged a complaint
with the Data Commissioner about the Household Tax site,
www.householdcharge.ie.
“The government is starting to roll out a massive propaganda campaign
to get people to register for and pay the unjust household tax.
However, the site they are encouraging people to register on is in
breach of the 2011 regulations on “Privacy and Electronic
Communications” which implements EU directives on privacy.
“The website’s privacy statement declares that the site uses ‘session
cookies’ which are erased after use, whereas in fact it uses so-called
‘persistent cookies’ that remain on people’s computers after they
visit the website. This is a breach of the 2011 regulations and I have
made a complaint to the Data Commissioner about it.
“People should not register or pay on this site. Instead, they should
join the Campaign against Household and Water Taxes and work to
establish such mass non-registration and non-payment that this tax
will be uncollectable.”
ENDS
[PMPress]
Note for editor:
The www.householdcharge.ie site is in breach of the 2011 regulations
(EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS AND
SERVICES) (PRIVACY AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS) REGULATIONS 2011),
available here http://www.dataprotection.ie/documents/legal/SI336of2011.pdf
. In particular, it is in breach of section 5, part 3, which reads:
“(3) A person shall not use an electronic communications network to store information, or to gain access to information already stored in the terminal equipment of a subscriber or user, unless (a) the subscriber or user has given his or her consent to that use, and (b) the subscriber or user has been provided with clear and
comprehensive information in accordance with the Data Protection Acts
which— (i) is both prominently displayed and easily accessible, and (ii) includes, without limitation, the purposes of the processing of the information.”
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1930 companies close & 40,000 private sector jobs to go
Figures for company collapses in 2011 further testimony of the failure of austerity
Government’s projected savings of €185 million from cut in employer redundancy rebate indicates FG/Labour expect over 40,000 further private sector job losses
Effective state ownership via NAMA of companies like Vita Cortex should result in production being maintained and jobs saved or created
Responding to the research produced by Vision-net which looked at the impact of the crisis on private companies last year Joe Higgins TD said
“The figures provided by Vision-net regarding the closure of 1,930 private companies in 2011 up to November amount to further testimony of the failure of austerity. That this figure was 20% up on 2010 and also given the fact that this government is persisting with a strategy of austerity it is blindingly obvious that this trend will continue.
“The most high risk sectors according to the research were hotels, bars, retail and wholesale, in other words those sectors most sensitive to the spending power of low and middle income workers. This backs up our contention that the cutback approach of successive governments and unfortunately advocated by the representatives of small employers is totally self defeating. “
Clare Daly TD said:
“The government themselves have indicated that they expect at least 40,000 job losses in the private sector over most of 2012 and the whole of 2013. We know this because they have projected €185 million in ‘savings’ over this period by cutting the employers rebate for statutory redundancy.
“We can extrapolate from 2010 figures (figure for all of 2011 are not yet available) based on the average rebate per worker made redundant that almost 39,000 will receive statutory redundancy from the time the reduced rebate comes into effect until the end of 2013. If one takes into account those workers who won’t have worked the necessary two years to avail of statutory redundancy you are looking easily over 40,000 job losses based on the government’s own figures.”
“This shows that in reality they don’t even believe their own propaganda about creating the conditions for jobs!”
Joe Higgins added:
“The United Left Alliance proposed a range of job creation measures in the run up to the budget centered around an emergency programme of public works. The Socialist Party in addition to this calls for the nationalisation of firms threatened with closure or widespread job losses.
“Take Vita Cortex in Cork for example which was a viable firm with a full order book but because of their employers entanglement with NAMA have been sacked in the most outrageous manner . The workers are demanding their statutory redundancy which is their right. However I ask the question, why must this firm which is already in effective state ownership close?
“Instead production could resume under public ownership but under the local control and management of those workers who want to hold on to their jobs and likewise employment opportunities could be created to fill the vacancies of those who want to take the redundancy. These proposals will meet with predictable scoffs from the government and their supporters in the media but I say to them that this is the only adequate response to the jobs catastrophe they preside over.”
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Remember the Property Tax 1996?
Under pressure from the super wealthy in Ireland, Fine Gael & Labour abolished Property Tax in 1996. It was previously levied on the most expensive houses & mansions across Ireland.
The yield from that property tax peaked in 1994 at 14 million pounds and had fallen to 12 million pounds by 1995. Under pressure from press barons and talk show radio hosts representing the interests of the super rich the then rainbow government of Fine Gael, Labour & Democratic Left (now leading members of the Labour Party) scrapped that property tax.
Now Fine Gael & Labour reintroduce a household tax for ALL homes.
Back in 1995 77% of Property Tax collected was on homes in the Dublin area source: Dail answer by Minister for Finance Ruari Quinn http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/1996/05/21/00078.asp#N2
1996 v 2012: The banks that made mega bucks from selling mortgages on homes are now being bailed out by the same home owners. Enough is Enough.
We need to broaden the tax base. We need to seriously tax wealth.
That same government were forced to abolish water taxes in December 1996. A campaign called the Federation of Anti Water Charges Campaigns led tens of thousands of households in a non payment boycott of that charge making its collection unworkable while winning the arguments about the unjust nature of that double tax.
Now the veterans of that campaign along with newer forces are taking the Household Tax issue to a national level.
Join the Campaign Against the Household & Water Taxes
http://www.NoHouseholdTax.org
Don’t Register Don’t Pay
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