Is The Irish Household Charges Act Unconstitutional?

Irish Government Minister, Phil Hogan, tells us that he has raised a significant amount of money on the household charge to date.

However I wonder if Minister Hogan is aware that the charges levied and the distribution of the money for use by local authorities could be unconstitutional.

I imagine that some part of the acts governing the charges have been introduced as a Money Bill in accordance with Article 22 of our Constitution. 

Article 22

1. 1° A Money Bill means a Bill which contains only provisions dealing with all or any of the following matters, namely, the imposition, repeal, remission, alteration or regulation of taxation; the imposition for the payment of debt or other financial purposes of charges on public moneys or the variation or repeal of any such charges; supply; the appropriation, receipt, custody, issue or audit of accounts of public money; the raising or guarantee of any loan or the repayment thereof; matters subordinate and incidental to these matters or any of them.

Fair enough: the Article seems to cover the collection of taxes. Phil says that from now on the Revenue Commissioners will be responsible for the collection of the Household Charge.

But Phil! There is a big sticky constitutional matter to be resolved first: since Article 22.2 says:-

2° In this definition the expressions "taxation", "public money" and "loan" respectively do not include any taxation, money or loan raised by local authorities or bodies for local purposes.

So is it back to the drawing board, once again, for Minister Hogan?

Róisín Ingle's opening sentences drive me SPARE!

I have been reading the I.T. Magazine on Saturday: despite the fact that lately I learned it was designed for their female readers. Normally that kind of comment would make me think I should unsubscribe.

Almost all readings result in a rush of blood to me head as a result of Róisín's terrible opening sentences.

When I was in the print business I was told repeatedly, “open with a hook to hold the reader” and later in the article come back and explain the hook.

An example is the title on this piece. Simple short and I hope it was enough to make you read further.

Today I am in so much of a fury that I decided to Blog: so I must explain the reason for that.

“The Fair Play Café in Ringsend, Dublin is one of those places a bit off the beaten track but well worth a diversion if you find yourself in the area and in need of sustenance, physical or spiritual.”

I was a struggle but I got there.

What's wrong with this.

The Fair Play Café in Ringsend, Dublin, is one of those places that is a bit off the beaten track. It is well worth a diversion: if you find yourself in the area, and in need of sustenance, physical or spiritual.

It even has the : to indicate a conclusion comment to the foregoing statement and for good measure is even followed by a list, an explanation to support the statement.

My God! I read that and I sound like a Victorian Schoolmistress!

A Victorian Schoolmistress’ Rules of Punctuation

Sentences start with a Capital letter,
So as to make your writing better.
Use a full stop to mark the end.
It closes every sentence penned.
The comma is for short pauses and breaks,
And also for the lists the writer makes.
Dashes – like these – are for thoughts by the way.
They give extra information (so do brackets, we may say).
These two dots are colons: they pause to compare.
They also do this: list, explain and prepare.
The semicolon makes a break; followed by a pause.
It does the job of words that link; it’s also a short pause.
An apostrophe shows the owner of anyone’s things,
And it’s also used for shortenings. I'm so glad! He’s so mad! We’re having such a lark!
To show strong feelings use an exclamation mark!
A question mark follows What? When? Where, Why? And how?
Do you? Can I? Shall we? Give us your answer now!
“Quotation marks” enclose what is said
Which is why they are sometimes called “speech marks” instead.

Scarcer than Bigfoot?

Has anyone ever met or heard of a motorist brought to court in Ireland by the NRA for non payment of toll fees and penalties?

I keep trolling the “Net” and can't find any. I may be wrong BUT!

In the early days I tried to pay for two trips on a single day . The system would only accept one payment and refused the other as not due. I called and spoke to a lady who told me to forget about it.

Of course you know what happened? Yes I got a bill for the fee and the penalty. So I spoke to them over a while arguing against the penalty and offering to pay the fee.

No use and then I got suspicious when I was told the penalty could not be remover UNLESS I signed up for automatic payment.

Now I'm a very suspicious person and wondered about this and came to the conclusion after examining the “Net” again and their website that they wanted details under The Data Protection Act, from me as a person. That way I was agreeing to them getting and using my personal data for their own use.

SO then I looked at the road traffic act section mentioned on their documentation and found it a very flimsy permission for NRA to collect my Car Registration details from the Tax Authorities.

Lo and behold the act only permits data exchange in the case of “Criminality”.

I asked NRA about this and they told me I was regarded as a “Criminal” if I did not pay my toll road fee.

I asked for that in writing and years later am still waiting for that statement or any follow up on the massive penalties I must owe after a few years.

So I ask again has anyone heard of, or know anyone brought to court and convicted of not paying a toll fee and the penalties imagined by the NRA?

Hail Mary

I was at Mass Sunday. Yes! Some of us Dinosaurs still attend: despite all.

The priest was introducing the Advent season and he started to talk about Mary and said when the angel visited her and announced she was to be the mother of Christ she said Do it to me or words to that effect. It says it better in the Angelus Prayer: “Be it done unto me according to your Word.”

Once again in relation to the Catholic Church I found something sticking in my craw.

Here they tell us a woman, in their opinion, said or would say words like that.

Is it not more reasonable that she would say, we will do this, I will carry the baby and give him a life, and nourish him and nurture him.

It would be more reasonable if she had said Listen Birdman! Hop It. Find another stooge!

I would have said. If God is all powerful, why not beam the baby down here now and leave me out of it.

And then I realised what I was thinking; Christ is not the beginning: Mary is!

Who is Fingal County Council trying to fool.

Well I'm amused. Last week I got a long curious email apparently from Greater Dublin Drainage that was so confusing I decided to reply to it and ask for clarification: the email address given bounced back as “Undeliverable”. I checked: the return address is info@greaterdubindrainage.ie. Where the Hell has the "L" gone to.

But it gets worse when you access GreaterDublinDrainage at the web address given and look at the Stakeholders Submissions in Appendix H. They seem to be about the Donabate and Portrane issue and the submissions made back then.

Then the Fingal Independent ran a story the says FCC don't have the money currently to carry out or complete existing projects.

Then I get a posted letter from FCC that has my address incorrect, but gets to me, that essentially is trying to say GreaterDublinDrainage has not gone away, "we will be making a decision in the Spring": just like they told us this time last year  before Christmas 2011.

Finally if you send a message to the correct GreaterDublin Drainage email address, you will not get the usual acknowledgement message, just silence.

I wonder are FCC so broke that they can't pay the consultants their fee and are trying to hobble along with the project being run by having the Reserve Team on the pitch. If so it won't work, we are all Premier Players out here in Fingal. Some of us even have International experience.

Let's go fly a kite...Rubbish Statements.

I'm sick and tired of the rubbish I hear on the TV and Radio these days.

One big "Bend the Truth" statement is that The Irish Revenue can collect the Household charge. It can't.

Taxes are collectible by Revenue on earned and unearned revenue and duty (which includes VAT) : that's all.

We would require changes to the tax laws to have the Taxman collect Household or other charges. But watch the Government try to sneak in the rules to collect the charges, hidden deep within the sub-texts of the next budget.

I also hear that a 25% Pension Levy is being proposed.  Also mooted is that pension funds will pass the charge on to existing pension holders. Wow! Another levy that will take away 25% of your occupational pension payments.

Meanwhile the TD's and Ministers and back bench squatters, - all of them want us to pay retired ministers and office holders a Great Big Whack of our money to Ex members who lost their seats. I can't remember any TD retiring unless he/she saw the writing on the wall in an up-coming election contest.

Ah look, this auld place is banjaxed even to the extent that you need a current TV Licence for a TV you have that is now blank because you can't receive Digital but did receive Analogue. Blooming Nora a Licence  is now required for having a Blank TV Screen in your house.

'Tis no wonder that the French think they can get us to increase our Corporation Tax so that we have money to give to Bond Holders who probably invest in French Pension Funds. Then the French worker will be looking forward to being able to retire at age 60 and the Irish will have to work on to 68 to qualify for a small pension.  (I would say SACRE BLUE!, if I knew how to spell it, or what it meant.)

Aren't we a right shower of Eegits to allow this Government to sell us down the river while they feather their own nests : ON OUR MONEY. Earned by us by hard work while they want to avail of  money they don't earn by making us pay more tax on fuel, housing, even Sh-one-T collectors in our gardens, cigarettes, drink, air (Carbon Tax):  even the food we can't afford to put in our children's mouths anymore.

Tell the Troica to stuff their Means Tests

We Irish, the people that is, not the Muppets in so called government, need to tell the Troica to stuff their “slash and grab from the needy and vulnerable” ideas up their jerseys.

You see it's my belief that the so called demands are not their own ideas, it's because our Muppet Master and his sidekick The Minister for Smoke and Mirrors nodded at the wrong time and at the wrong meeting with the Chopper and His Hole in the Wall Gang.

Our lot were just nodding off for a snooze after a nice lunch of whatever Europe is currently feeding them for lunch: as distinct from what Europe are currently feeding all of us in B-Sh-one-T, and slept through the next hour or so and then woke up and attempted to say “I'm OK!” in embarrassment and now The Troica think they have permission for some really silly ideas.

Look lads and lassies I have some money saving ideas. Our Ex Ministers have a pension fund that pays them collectively €8.86 Million yearly. Chop that Chopper.

The taxpayer will have to foot the bill for T D’s and Senators expenses this year to the tune of a massive €40 million. Chop that Chopper.

The members of the Oireachtas are entitled to claim expenses under ten separate headings.

Dual Abode Allowance- A Minister or a Minister of State, may claim for a second residence. The allowance is confined to office holders who represent constituencies outside Dublin. (Dublin City or Dublin County?) The dual abode allowance may be claimed on owned, rented or hotel accommodation (How many stars? Won't be a Hostel anyhow.) and covers mortgage and interest repayments, (What Limit?) auctioneers and solicitors fees and all maintenance costs (Pizza Deliveries?) including light, heating, repairs and insurance. Chop that Chopper.

Constituency Office Grant- This grant is paid on a once off basis when a Deputy is first elected to establish and equip a Constituency Office. The allowance is claimed on the basis of a declaration of expenses incurred by way of a signed form. (Jays-us! Do they surrender the office when we turf them out? No they operate their business from it - allegedly) Chop that Chopper.

Constituency Office Maintenance Allowance- This is an annual allowance which is claimed by Deputies who have constituency offices. This allowance is paid to cover rent, rates, ( Do we get Rates Refunds?) light heat etc. in constituency offices. Payment is made twice yearly in January and July on production of a signed declaration that the Deputy is incurring expenses (Pizza Deliveries?) in maintaining a constituency office. Chop that Chopper.

Telephone Allowance- an Annual Allowance is paid to Deputies from the date of their election to the Houses of the Oireachtas. The payment to Senators is also paid. This allowance is to cover all telephone costs (Whisper, whisper – even calls to Debbie does...?) incurred by a Member. The allowance is unvouched. Chop that Chopper.

Miscellaneous Expense- Annual allowance unvouched allowance is paid to Deputies and Senators. This allowance is unvouched and paid with the Member’s salary from the date of election to the Houses of the Oireachtas. Chop that Chopper.

Constituency Travel Allowance- There are three constituency bands of travel allowance based on the size of the constituency from which a Deputy is elected. This allowance is unvouched and is paid with the Deputy’s salary from the date of election to the Dáil. Chop that Chopper.

Mobile Phone Allowances are claimed on production of an original receipt from the service provider. Members purchase the mobile phone and are refunded the amount every 18 months. Chop that Chopper

Travel The Travel Allowance is recouped through a one-way-journey allocation, permitting Members living at locations greater than 24.135 kilometres (15 miles) from the Houses to recoup up to a given amount of one-way-journeys in 1 week. The number of one-way-journeys permitted is based on the distance between the Member’s home and the Houses of the Oireachtas and ranges from 10 trips for those below 40km to 3 trips for those over 272km. These trips can be claimed without the need for any verification. Chop that Chopper.