Saturday, March 24, 2012

Household Tax Bully tactics won’t work – Kelly

Cllr Anthony Kelly renewed his call on the government to abolish the household tax ahead of today’s rally against the controversial charge in Wexford town. The Wexford Sinn Féin councillor said that the governments bully tactics and scaremongering were failing to break the resolve of the Irish people after it had emerged that less than 20% of those eligible to pay the household tax had registered with only a week to go before the deadline.
Cllr Kelly said;

“There’s only one week to go to the deadline for registration to pay the household charge yet fewer than 20% of those eligible have signed up. At this time a little over 300,000 households have paid the charge. That leaves 1.3 million households who have not paid. If that’s not a clear rejection of the household tax by the Irish electorate then I don’t know what is. The people have rejected this tax, and today as a local democratically elected representative I am calling on the government to listen to the wishes of the people and abolish this controversial charge.”
“We are now witnessing government reps appearing hourly on national and local media desperately trying to scaremonger the remaining 1.3 million households into paying this tax. I don’t believe the majority of these people will be fooled by their frantic rhetoric. I don’t believe that the household tax is collectable. Which leaves the question; what will the government do next week after the deadline? Will they begin the process of criminalising hundreds of thousands of Irish people who have never been in any trouble with the law before?”
“Sinn Féin supported the protest rally against the household tax on Wexford Quays this afternoon. I called on all Wexford Sinn Féin members, supporters and voters to come out and help us make a stand against this unfair tax and call for its immediate abolishment. The government has completely misjudged the applicability of this tax and must back down now to avoid a long summer of conflict with their own electorate.”

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