11 December 2003 Edition

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Decentralisation diversion

Decentralisation diversion

A Chairde,

The masters of spin and presentation that comprise this Fianna Fáil-led, but PD-driven, administration have cynically used the announcement of the long-awaited decentralisation of some government departments as a diversion from the Budgets failure to deliver for the vast majority of people.

The focus of media presentation and commentary has been on the proposed movement of government departments and personnel from Dublin to various parts of the 26 Counties. Whatever about the merits and/or feasibility of these plans and leaving aside (for now) this government's record in terms of promises made versus promises delivered, it is important that democrats ensure attention is refocused on the failure to address structural inequalities in this state, and the failure to make any provision for longer-term action on an all-Ireland basis.

The continuation of Thatcherite fiscal policy that has shifted the burden of debt away from the state (via direct taxation) and onto individuals (in part via indirect taxation) is causing enormous damage to our society. The lowering of tax rates continues to disproportionately favour the wealthy and the tax benefits that have come the way of working people are effectively frittered away by the necessity to fund loans and mortgages caused by property inflation and by consumer prices that are amongst the highest in Europe.

The absence of a National Health Service funded through taxation translates into many people having to take out ever increasing health insurance policies. There is an increasing number of working poor who do not meet the limited criteria set out for medical cards and who are making choices as to whether or not they can avail of medical treatment. Would a few cent on income tax to enable universal healthcare delivery cost more than insurance costs to the individual? If in need of emergency attention, private and public suffer alike. How do we measure this?

The budget makes no mention of childcare. The issue has simply vanished from this government's agenda. How much of the tax 'given' back to working families is having to be used to fund childcare? How do we measure the 'success' that is having both partners in a relationship working in such circumstances? What thought is given to the social dimension here?

Fianna Fáil in particular should be challenged on the failure to give any budgetary consideration to the expansion of the all-Ireland agenda. Is there anybody left in that party prepared to work for unity? Fianna Fáil has been described as having a corporate and a republican wing. We can see who is in the ascendancy.

In our criticisms of this government and its budgets, it is important that we aim to create a national debate about the type of society that would view anything other than the elimination of poverty and the easing of burden of its citizens as a failure. Decentralisation is the least of our worries.

Vincent Wood,

Salthill, Galway.

Film industry tax breaks

A Chairde,

I would like to respond to Michael Walsh's letter regarding tax breaks for the film industry (An Phoblacht, 27 November). The film industry should be the exception to the rule, I think, when it comes to corporation tax. Such an incentive offers a lot more than just fiscal benefits.

However, leaving aside the tax aspect, what perturbs me is your letter-writer's feeling that the arts are elitist. As an artist - and republican - myself, I believe the arts belong to everyone: it would seem to fly in the face of Sinn Féin's whole equality ethos to suggest otherwise.

We should not lose sight of the fact that most people working in the arts field (jobbing actors, musicians, painters, and so on) actually earn very little, as work tends to be on an irregular basis. If artists were motivated by the thought of monetary gain, we would have gone into the immensely more lucrative callings - the legal profession, property development, maybe that of a hospital consultant.

The arts will remain elitist if we allow them to: it is up to us to wrest them back into common ownership. It is up to us, as a party committed to changing the status quo and bringing the notion of equality to bear on every area of our lives, to ensure that the arts can be accessed by all and participated in by all.

Carol-Mary Fraser,

Clontibret, County Monaghan.

Housing levies disgrace

A Chairde,

The new proposed increased levies by the county council for people building houses in urban or rural areas has come as some shock to the ordinary people of Ireland, who are already hard pressed and paying hand over fist. This is specially so when one realises that the cost of these levies will be anything from €10,000 to €20,000, depending on the county or urban council area.

The lack of social and affordable housing is one of the biggest problems facing the young people of this country today. There are almost 50,000 people on council waiting lists and the average price of a house now stands at about €230,000. Few young people can afford this kind of money, and for those that can manage to get a loan, it is a lifelong burden to pay off the debt. This form of taxation by stealth is also going to have a very detrimental effect on the building construction industry, one of the biggest employers in this country.

Instead of trying to alleviate this problem, the current government is doing the opposite. Last year, they got rid of the first time buyers' grant of €3,800, while they continue to provide tax breaks for the wealthy private speculators. This has resulted in soaring house prices and the first time buyer being squeezed out of the market.

One wonders who is really running this present coalition government - is it the PD tail wagging the dog or has the rot set in to such an extent that the tail has become the dog and the PD mentality is rampant within FF? It seems so.

A few short years ago, the country was awash with money. We had several billion of a surplus; they didn't know what to best do with it. Within a year, the billions were squandered . We had sunk to a new low - the dykes of our roads were not cut. Now they want the councils and councillors of this country to do their dirty work for them by imposing this new exorbitant planning development levy.

The council is where local democracy begins, where the people's voice should be heard. But if the hide and go seek stance of the establishment party councillors on such issues as the 300% increase in refuse charges in recent years and the non cutting of dykes is anything to go by, they will definitely not be representing the voice of the ordinary people.

The question is, will the undergrowth of two years in the dykes be dense enough to provide cover for them when the local elections come around next June?

Donnchadh Ó Seaghdha,

Sinn Féin PRO,

Drumadún, An Sciobairín.

Liam Mellows correction

A Chairde,

Well done to An Phoblacht on the long overdue reappearance of articles on republican history in your pages.

Regarding last week's piece on Liam Mellows, a correction is called for. The Four Courts were bombarded by the Free State Army in June 1922, using guns borrowed from the British and positioned on the quays opposite the building. There was no bombardment by a gunboat in the Liffey.

Perhaps the writer was confused with the bombardment of the city by the British gunboat Helga during the 1916 Rising.

Mícheál Mac Donncha,

Baile Átha Cliath.

Blighted streetscape

A Chairde,

The current state of Dublin's city centre is shameful.

The neverending LUAS works have cut an ugly swathe across O'Connell Street, while the equally ponderous 'redevelopment' of the same street has completed the lunar landscape look. Surely our main street hasn't looked as bad since the British demolished it in 1916.

In other cities, metropolitan planners would at least have erected tasteful hoarding, especially during the busy festive season, to try to hide the worst of the construction site that is the country's main street, but not here.

Shoppers and tourists can like it or lump it, a telling example of the attitude of authority in Ireland towards the people.

Frank Duggan,

Ballyboden, Dublin.


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