Joe Higgins TD

Comment: Rejection of Austerity Treaty will boost growing European anti-austerity movement

2012-05-12T17:42:53Z

‘Take the gun out of Irish politics!.’ This was the refrain of the establishment political parties for the last third of the Twentieth Century, meaning that people should be free from any threats when it came to deciding structures governing the future of this island. These are the very same parties which are now holding an economic and political weapon to the heads of the Irish people to coerce them into voting ‘Yes’ to their austerity Treaty on May 31.

They connived with the European Union establishment in February to quietly slip into the draft treaty setting up the new bailout mechanism a provision, saying that it could only be accessed by Member States which had ratified the Austerity Treaty. Knowing that the institutionalisation of austerity measures would give rise to widespread hostility among ordinary people, this is their weapon to achieve a ‘Yes’ by fear.

It is simply a lie to say that, in the event of the sharks in the money markets denying loans to this State, funds could not otherwise be accessed. The European Financial Stability Facility was set up in 2010 to last for a three year period. This is the fund which is being drawn down currently as part of the Troika /Irish government agreement. If needed, it is open to the government to apply for a new programme from the EFSF up until June 2013. This is made clear by the EFSF itself which stated, ‘following the Eurogroup meeting held on 30 March it was decided that the EFSF would remain active until July 2013 . . . For a transitional period until 2013, EFSF may engage in new programmes in order to ensure a full fresh lending capacity of €500 billion . . . after June 2013, EFSF will not enter into any new programmes.’

The ‘Yes’ side counter, that funds may not be needed next year but further into the future, and by voting ‘No’ to the austerity Treaty the State would not have access to the new fund being set up – the European Stability Mechanism(ESM). As I explained last week this would in fact be in the hands of the current government as in the event of a ‘No’ vote, it can tell the European Union that it will simply not agree to legally enshrine this fund in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union until the blackmail clause is removed.

If the Fine Gael and Labour parties had any respect for the right of the Irish people to freely decide, they would now declare that, in the event that the treaty was rejected on May 31, they would do just that.

Much deeper questions arise, however, in the event that a second ‘bailout’ is needed by this government. Would this be a bailout of the people of this State, or of the European financial markets system at the expense of the people, as is happening with the current programme? The latter would spell disaster for society entrenching and intensifying all the horrific consequences of austerity such as mass unemployment, growing poverty and the hollowing out of crucial public services like Health and Education.

There is now a real window of opportunity to force a change of policy across Europe. In last Sunday’s elections, the working class of France and Greece have trenchantly rejected the present policy of austerity pushed on them by their outgoing governments and the Troika acting on the diktat of the financial markets. The Dutch government collapsed under pressure from below and in Italy such pressure is also being manifested. Very significantly in Germany the Social Democratic Party(SPD) has forced a vote on the Austerity Treaty in the Bundestag to be postponed until after the Irish Referendum and the parliamentary elections in France in June. This follows a declaration by SPD MEP, Martin Schultz, currently the President of the European Parliament, that, ‘we must be honest enough to recognise that the current orgy of cuts will not generate growth. But without growth the countries facing a debt crisis will barely even be able to meet their interest payments.’

Many of these parties and individuals like Schultz are pillars of the EU establishment. They now fear the consequences of austerity. They fear the growing mass reaction of working people to this failed policy. This puts the Irish people in a pivotal position to give the movement against austerity a huge push forward and to force a complete change in policy. This has to be based on major public investment in jobs and bringing financial institutions into public ownership and democratic control as instruments for the betterment of society. A ‘No’ vote, far from ‘isolating us in Europe’ as the government claims would in fact be embraced Europe wide as part of the growing crescendo of demands for an end to destructive austerity.

AusterityTreaty.ie Website & Pamphlet Launched

2012-05-11T12:32:46Z

A press conference was held today launching the Socialist Party’s austeritytreaty.ie website and the pamphlet on “Austerity Treaty explained: how it undermines democracy & institutionalises austerity”.

In contrast to the taxpayer funded government website, the austeritytreaty.ie website gives the true story about the impact of this Treaty on people’s lives. In a series of short videos, the key features of the Treaty such as the austerity required and the bondholder pay outs it demands are explained. The website also answers the scaremongering arguments of the government, and explains in detail how the blackmail of the government is in fact a false threat.

The website also turns attention to the crucial democratic arguments against this Treaty. It explains how the treaty gives yet more powers to the unelected and unaccountable European Commission and enables countries in ‘Excessive Deficit Procedures’ to be effectively placed into administration with their budgets written by the Commission and Council. It outlines how writing the structural deficit target into law is an attempt to remove people’s right to choose an alternative to austerity policies.

Also available to buy on the website is the new pamphlet from Paul Murphy MEP, ‘Austerity Treaty explained: how it undermines democracy & institutionalises austerity’. This has already sold extremely well at public meetings right across the country. According to Paul Murphy “there is a thirst out there for an explanation of what this Treaty will mean for people’s lives and a strong distrust of the government’s arguments. I have spoken at a number of meetings of the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes about this Treaty in the last week and everywhere, large number of anti-household tax activists are signing up to actively campaign against this Treaty for the next three weeks”.

The website also provides a ‘twibbon’ badge for your facebook or twitter profile pic and a cover photo image for on facebook.

Comment: Austerity Treaty will only serve to deepen crisis across Europe

2012-05-05T15:31:51Z

A profoundly sinister attack on the democratic rights of the Irish people is being perpetrated by the government and other proponents of the Austerity Treaty. We are being threatened that we have no choice but to vote ‘Yes’ or we will be shut out from all sources of funding in the event that, come the end of 2013, this State will need a new ‘bailout’.

What is being said in effect is that it doesn’t matter what the content of the Treaty is or what the straitjacket prescription of intensified austerity would mean in 2015. It doesn’t matter that the strict structural deficit and debt reduction rules would mean swingeing further cuts in public services and further crippling tax increases on low and middle income people.

Government representatives are refusing point blank to debate what the devastatingly serious consequences of further austerity would mean.

If the Treaty is passed in this State, the EU Commission has the power to insist on the ‘corrective action’ needed to reduce the structural deficit to 0.5% of Gross Domestic Product and to reduce the public debt each year by 5% of the amount of total debt that exceeds 60% of GDP.

Given that the Department of Finance predicts that the structural deficit in this State will be 3.7% of GDP in 2015, reducing this to 0.5% would mean cuts or tax increases of €5.7 billion. The EU Commission is given the power in the Treaty to set ‘the nature, size and time-frame of the corrective action to be taken’(Art.3) This could mean that the full amount would have to be dealt with in 2015 or, more likely perhaps, over a period of say three years which would mean cuts or tax increases of nearly €2 billion a year.

The mandatory schedule of accumulated debt reduction would mean more cuts or tax increases on top of those related to the deficit rules. It is estimated that Ireland’s debt to GDP ratio in 2015 will be about 120%. That ratio would be reduced automatically if the economy grew by significant amounts each year. However the current austerity regime has decimated growth. The estimated increase in GDP for this year has been revised downward to 0.7%. With continuing austerity the heart will continue to be torn out of the domestic economy and, unfortunately therefore, there will be no significant growth any time soon.

What this means is that a strict implementation of the debt reduction rules should see around a further €5 billion being paid to the bankers and bondholders each year. That’s on top of massive interest of up to €9 billion that will be due in 2015 and thereafter. This is simply unsustainable and any attempt to force these sums out of the Irish people would see wages, living standards and public services crushed on a Greek scale that would destroy the very fabric of a civilised society.

When we reflect on the seriousness of what is involved here we can see why the proponents of the ‘Yes’ vote are refusing to go there. They simply have no answers on the basis of the financial markets’ casino capitalism over which they preside. That is why the European Stability Mechanism was quietly changed in February this year to include the ‘blackmail clause’ threatening any Member State that does not sign up to the Austerity Treaty with being shut out of any participation in the bailout fund being set up. The Taoiseach participated in the inclusion of this threat in order to give himself a political gun to hold to the heads of the Irish people to coerce them to vote ‘Yes.’

Disgraceful as this perversion of the democratic right of the Irish people to vote free from menaces and threats is, it is made worse by the fact that the ESM Treaty is not yet enshrined in European Union law. That cannot happen until one of the two fundamental treaties of the EU – The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union – is amended by inserting into Article 136 the following, ‘The Member States whose currency is the Euro may establish a stability mechanism to be activated if indispensable to safeguard the stability of the euro area as a whole.’

This amendment has to be agreed unanimously by all the Member States so the Irish Government could exercise a veto until the threatening clause was removed from the ESM Treaty. Taoiseach Enda Kenny could say, ‘Our people think it profoundly undemocratic that they are being forced to vote under threat rather than on the merits of the Fiscal Treaty and therefore we demand the removal of the relevant provision.’ If he does not he is guilty of a monstrous perversion of democracy.

Next week I will reflect on what a new ‘bailout’, and more austerity, would entail and the Left alternative to that.

Comment: Rejection of Treaty would be recognition of disastrous austerity policies not working

2012-05-01T08:59:44Z

If it was raining soup, the man would be out with a fork,’ famously said a disgruntled Fine Gael backbencher many years ago, in reference to his party leader’s tendency to always choose the wrong policy option. This unfortunate tendency now characterises the Fine Gael/Labour Government in its response to the current economic crisis. The government has lashed itself more tightly than ever to the austerity wagon just as the wheels are wobbling and in imminent danger of falling off.

The political crisis in the Netherlands is quite significant in this regard. Here is a country whose government was a hardcore supporter of imposing savage austerity as a panacea for Europe’s economic problems and especially so in the case of the crisis ridden peripheral States like Greece and Ireland. But it fell victim to its own harsh prescription as its Budget deficit in 2011 came in significantly over the 3% of Gross Domestic Product target laid down by the European Union’s so called Stability and Growth pact.

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As the Dutch government began to plan savage cuts to stay within EU guidelines, the Freedom Party walked out of the coalition, with its leader proclaiming that he could not tolerate ‘pensioners bleeding for Brussels diktats.’ The fact that this is a right wing/populist/racist political party shouldn’t diminish the significance of statements like this. This party and its leader, Geert Wilders, is opportunistically attempting to reflect growing opposition of poorer and working class people to the effects of austerity on their lives.

‘The Dutch case is a horrific display of Europe’s self harming.’ declared an Editorial in Wednesday’s Financial Times. It continued ‘ . . Europe’s policy of austerity for all, is dragging one economy after another back into recession – and the effect is not limited to the periphery.’

The FT wasn’t the only commentator using the self harm analogy in relation to the policy of austerity being dogmatically imposed across Europe and now enshrined in the new Austerity Treaty. Paul Krugman is a columnist with the New York Times, a Professor of economics at Columbia University and a winner of the Nobel Prize for economics. Not a Left revolutionary, then, rather a sober analyst of current trends in capitalism.

Last week in a hard hitting, syndicated column, he referred to the New York Times reporting on the tragedy of people taking their own lives in Europe over unemployment and financial difficulties. ‘But I’m sure I wasn’t the only reader, especially among economists, wondering if the larger story isn’t so much about individuals as about the apparent determination of European leaders to commit economic suicide for the continent as a whole.’

Krugman goes on to damn the fiscal austerity uniformly pushed by the leaders of the European Union. ‘This is, not to mince words, just insane,’ he declared . ‘Europe has had several years of harsh austerity programmes, . . . such programmes push depressed economies deeper into depression.’ He finished with a powerful broadside at the EU leadership, referring to the Fiscal Treaty locking in austerity as the response to any and all problems. ‘So, it’s hard to avoid a sense of despair. Rather than admit that they’ve been wrong, European leaders seem determined to drive their economy – and their society – off a cliff. And the whole world will pay the price.’

This is the reckless policy now being relentlessly pushed by the Irish government at the behest of the neo liberal economic and political establishment within the EU. Fine Gael and Labour, having decided to follow the Troika’s diktat that the Irish people should be economically bled to salvage the European financial institutions, slavishly repeat the austerity mantras. Thus, the fiscal Treaty is about stability, leading to ‘confidence’ in the markets and among multinational corporations.

‘The crisis is subject to growing political risks,’ wrote Financial Times columnist, Martin Wolf, in Wednesday’s edition. ‘The fall of the Dutch government and the victory of Francois Hollande in France in the first round of the French Presidential election demonstrate this point. The street might overwhelm the establishment.’

The hopes of the Fine Gael and Labour Ministers fronting the government’s Austerity Treaty campaign, that the acceptance of this treaty will lead to a period of ‘stability’, will be blown away in due course. It is not ruled out that, even before the Irish people vote in the May 31 Referendum, a new crisis could grip the financial markets. If the sharks that hold sway there believe that the final result in the French election, economic crisis in Spain, or other developments, threaten their profits, slavish declarations of adherence to more and more austerity by EU leaders will not assuage them.
A rejection of the Treaty by the Irish people would be a recognition that austerity is causing havoc across Europe and a powerful demand for a change of course.

Video: Paul Murphy MEP questions the Taoiseach on the Austerity Treaty

2012-04-27T14:27:51Z

Paul Murphy MEP questions the Taoiseach on the Austerity Treaty

He asks three main questions in relation to the Treaty. Firstly, why was the stabilitytreaty.ie website clearly biased in favour of the Yes side and potentially in breach of the McKenna judgement.

Secondly, he puts it to the Taoiseach as to why voters should believe Fine Gael’s rhetoric when during Lisbon II, promises were made in relation to jobs, which never materialised.

Lastly, the question is posed to the Taoiseach as to how this Treaty can in anyway bring stability when it will mean taking billions out of the budget and further deflate the economy.

Comment: Water charges are just paving the way for privatisation

2012-04-22T16:33:29Z

People who walked into newsagents shops all over the country on Wednesday morning might easily have staggered out in a confused and shell shocked state after glancing at the morning newspapers. A plethora of banner headlines would have leapt out at them with horror stories of a raft of new fees, charges and taxes awaiting them in the next few years if government plans are allowed to be implemented.

‘Households to pick up €800 million bill to establish water company’ said the Irish Times. ‘Hogan to announce meter rollout’ announced the Daily Mail. ‘Pay up or I’ll cut off your water’ screamed the Star referring to Environment Minister Phil Hogan saying that it would be his philosophy that homes which did not pay water charges should have their water disconnected. The Irish Independent shocked with the headline, ‘Property tax of up to €1,000 on cards.’

Like a drunken sailor Phil Hogan staggers around the political landscape trying to implement a new tax here while announcing another charge there. However, your average drunken sailor would muster more coherence than the Minister. His cabinet colleagues have been equally unsteady on their feet as Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his Deputy, Eamon Gilmore, gave out garbled and contradictory versions of what is supposed to be their government’s policy on water charges.

At the receiving end of all this bungling are the unfortunate householders and taxpayers. And many of them are hurting badly already before any new burdens. That much is clear from the Irish League of Credit Unions survey which finds that 47% of Irish adults have less than €100 left over at the end of each month once the bills are paid. In short very many simply cannot bear any more.

It’s probably no coincidence that government sources are briefing behind the scenes about stiff new local taxes and charges. No coincidence, because their Troika masters are in town to see if their minions are implementing the memorandum agreement imposed on the people of this State to bail out the Irish and European speculators whose property gambling losses they have placed on their shoulders.

Local taxes and privatisation in public services are the stock in trade of the EU bureaucracy and the IMF. (Ask the poor people of Africa and Latin America about the brutal ‘structural adjustment programmes’ forced on them in the 1980’s by the latter agency. ) The government of Fine Gael and Labour, every bit as subservient as their Fianna Fail/Green predecessors, are anxious to impress as the ‘poster boys of austerity’, an accolade awarded them by the sharks in the financial markets and the neo liberal and right wing politicians who dominate many countries in the EU.

There is no doubt that a steady march toward an attempt at the privatisation of water services in the State is well underway. Labour Leader Gilmore attempted yesterday in the Dail to strenuously deny this but none of the political establishment can be trusted on this issue. Once water is turned into just another commodity, then the service is ripe to be picked off by private, profit seeking, water companies . That is how the domestic refuse services came to be removed from the hands of the local authorities, leaving householders at the mercy of the privateers. Domestic water metering is simply a preparation for water going the same way.

Mr Gilmore tried to cover up the obvious by claiming that the meters should be installed as a measure to cut down on water usage and wastage. Here he was flying in the face of evidence that it does not make a massive difference to domestic consumption, as is made clear by a comparison of the average household usage in the Dublin Region and areas in England where water is privatised and expensive.

Kevin Murray is a chartered engineer who is considered an expert on water management. He is in favour of a water tax and favours domestic meters, but as a water management aid. A year ago he stated in an article in the Engineers Journal, ‘It is argued that meters will be fairer and will change the behaviour of the consumer, i.e. they will use a lot less water. This is largely a myth.’ (his emphasis)

The fact is that the hundreds of millions of Euro which the government wants to spend on installing domestic water meters could be used to a massively greater conservation effect if invested instead in the catastrophically leaking pipe infrastructure.

The government doesn’t seem to have learned anything from the massive opposition to its Household Tax. Half of households have not registered. There will be an equally robust boycott of water taxes and a demand for a different conservation policy and funding mechanism. Working class people can bear no more austerity taxes. Expect their revolt to intensify.

Comment: Government & Local Government Agency Continue to Mislead over Numbers Liable for Home Tax Registration & Payment

2012-04-08T12:07:06Z

In my Column in Friday’s Irish Daily Mail I challenge the Local Government Management Agency and the Government over their cynical and misleading use of baseless estimates for the numbers of houses in this State liable according to the legislation for registration payment of the Home Tax.

I appeal to media outles to objectively assess the numbers they use out of respect for the 50% of the population that are boycotting this tax and the large numbers who registered and paid by virtue of feeling coerced and fearful.

The following is my column which gives the factual information on what is demanded by the legislation and argues the case for figures based on real evidence rather than politically motivated under estimates. I challenge the MInister fo rhte Environment and the LGMA to answer these points.

From Irish Daily Mail, Friday, April 6, 2012

The Local Government Management Agency(LGMA) is the public body collecting the Household Tax. In that case, it should surely be a subject of major controversy when its Chief Executive Officer, Paul McSweeney, misleads the nation on the total number of houses required to be registered and subject to payment in respect of this new charge when speaking on RTE’s Drivetime this Wednesday. Unfortunately, most media didn’t notice.

It favours the government’s propaganda that the total number of houses required to be registered and paid for, be set at lower figures, since that makes the substantial number of those who have not registered and paid look less than is the reality. Last December when the Local Government (Household Charge) Bill 2011 was rammed through the Dail, an estimate of 1.8 million houses that should be registered was commonly used by the government side. The government also estimated that 1.6 million would be liable to pay, the balance being subject to exemptions or waivers.

However, as the deadline of March 31 approached with huge opposition evident in the low numbers complying, the 1.8 million figure disappeared from the vocabulary of the government and its agents and all that could be heard was reference to 1.6 million. The reason for this became very clear when the Agency gave its figures for the midnight deadline on March 31. It estimated that 805,000 had registered which is 50.3% of 1.6 million but would be only 44.7% of 1.8 million which would leave 55.3% not having registered.

Unfortunately, suiting the government’s propaganda, much of the media took to using the 1.6 million as the reference baseline until campaigners against the Home Tax attempted to have this corrected. Professor Rob Kitchin from the Department of Geography, Maynooth College, who is not a campaigner against the Home Tax, performed a very valuable service over the weekend when he detailed figures from Census 2011 for the total number of houses in the State and tried to work out from a number of different sources, the numbers which didn’t have to be registered.
Using his figures, we find that the number of houses that should be registered was indeed just over 1.8 million but the number that are liable to pay was not the 1.6 million estimate of the government but 1.75 million. The government had hugely overestimated the numbers who would be subject to waivers.

Despite this advance toward some clarity Mr McSweeney defended the 1.6 million figure on Wednesday by referring to the fact that Census 2011 had found that ‘private households’ numbered 1.654 million. The impression given here is that this equates to the number of houses that should be registered but this is entirely false. ‘Household’ refers to individuals or families but the legislation refers to ‘a residential property’, not to who lives in it, or whether it is vacant for some or all of the time.

Section 3 of the Act states: ‘In the year 2012. . ., each person who . . .is the owner of a residential property shall . . . pay to the relevant local authority the sum . . . specified in accordance with this section.’ The sum is €100.

Section 2 the Act defines a ‘residential property’ as a ‘building that is situated in the State and that is occupied, OR SUITABLE FOR OCCUPATION, as a separate dwelling’(my emphasis). It then goes on to exclude houses in the ownership of local authorities or newly constructed houses which are still unsold.

The only truthful way, therefore, that the numbers liable to registration can be arrived at is to take the total number of houses in Census 2011 (1,994,845 or just short of 2 million) and deduct local authority houses and the other exceptions. This is how the figure of 1.8 million is arrived at. We then deduct from that an estimate of those who are obliged to register but can claim a waiver in order to get the figures required to pay and that is how the figure of 1.75 million is arrived at.

On Wednesday evening the LGMA claimed that 885,762 houses had been registered. This is still only 49% of the 1.8 million required to register, leaving 51% unregistered. Very significantly the Agency reported that only 8,000 had registered online in the four days since the deadline.
Significantly these figures resemble the situation in Britain when in March 1991 Prime Minister Thatcher was forced to ditch her hated poll tax. 18 milllion or 50% of those liable were not paying, a figure that had increased from the previous year. Fine Gael/Labour be warned!
In the meantime, the government and its Agency in this State should show citizens a modicum of respect by replacing propaganda with an honest attempt at the real facts relating to eligibility for this obnoxious tax.

Press Statement: Joe Higgins TD calls on Ministers Burton and Bruton to intervene into GAME disupte

2012-04-03T15:23:55Z

Joe Higgins TD calls on Ministers Burton and Bruton to intervene into GAME disupte

GAME workers now into 8th day of store occupations

The GAME workers are now into their 8th day of store occupations across 13 different stores nationwide. It has now become apparent that a takeover of 333 of the British stores has taken place.

Joe Higgins TD said of the occupations “Just as with the La Senza dispute, we are once again seeing a major retail store laying-off its workers so as to be more appealing to prospective buyers. This opportunist measure aimed at escaping statutory redundancy payments are nothing other than scandalous and must be immediately legislated against.”

He added “I call on Ministers Burton and Bruton to immediately intervene into the dispute to ensure that the GAME worker’s pay entitlements are met and to enable these courageous workers to be able to return to their homes and families.”

Press Statement: Joe Higgins TD and Clare Daly TD offer full support and assistance to the workers of Game

2012-03-28T13:29:56Z

The Game stores suddenly announced their closure on Monday resulting in 121 workers losing their jobs without warning. Many of the workers have provided considerable years of service to the games retailer. The workers have now courageously decided to occupy 13 of the stores across the country.

Joe Higgins TD said “I would like to offer my full support and solidarity to the workers of the Game stores who are occupying 13 stores nationwide. It is remarkable that these workers are courageously following in the footsteps of the La Senza and Vita Cortex workers who themselves were inspired by the global Occupy Movement. This dispute is yet another example of major companies using the recession as an excuse to treat loyal workers with complete and utter disdain. I call on the Games stores to immediately provide these workers with their full redundancy and pay entitlements”

Clare Daly TD added “I would like to congratulate the Game workers for making their stand. The fact that these workers recognised immediately the importance of occupying their stores shows once again just how much the worker’s movement has learned in recent times about cut-throat big business. I demand that the Government and in particular the Labour Party intervene into this dispute to ensure that these workers are paid in full what they are due. The trade union movement need to have an immediate response on this issue by putting pressure on the retailer and by also preparing their members for industrial action if it becomes necessary.”

Video: Gilmore urged to abolish unjust Household Tax in light of mass boycott

2012-03-28T16:22:50Z

The conclusion of the planning tribunal found that corruption in Irish political life was both endemic and systemic. Does the Tánaiste understand that this has enormously increased the anger and sense of aggrievement of the majority of ordinary decent people? Is he aware that it has also enormously strengthened the boycott of the regressive household tax this week?

Is he aware that those boycotting see the hold developers had over the previous Government, the very hold which allowed the racketeering that blew up the property bubble that brought the crash and that in turn led to the disastrous austerity policy that this Government is implementing which is destroying living standards and services? Is he aware this new raft of taxation is being put on the shoulders of the innocent majority to bail out the failed property gamblers? Does he see the connection?

Did the Tánaiste see reports of a major rally of thousands of ordinary people from across the country in Dublin on Saturday last demanding the Government withdraw the household tax? Is he aware further thousands will also protest this Saturday at the Fine Gael Ard-Fheis in a peaceful and disciplined display of people power?

Comment: The Mahon Tribunal exposes endemic corruption that existed in Irish politics

2012-03-27T14:47:43Z

The massive opposition across the State to the Household Tax has featured prominently in the media in recent days. Over the next while, the Mahon Tribunal Report that will feature strongest. What should not be lost sight of is that there is a strong connection between the two issues.

The Mahon Tribunal at first glance doesn’t make any dramatic new revelations. What it does do, however, is to bring back to prominence the litany of corrupt practices and crooked dealings that characterised the relationship between certain developers and numerous prominent public representatives from the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael parties.

It reminds us, in particular, of the scandals surrounding land rezonings in the greater Dublin area in the 1980s and ‘90s. It reminds us of the appalling planning decisions made as a result of this corruption which have blighted the quality of life of residents in numerous communities. And, for some of us who were Councillors at the time, it brings back memories of the exhausting and fractious meetings of Dublin County Council in the early 1990’s when we tried to stand against the tide of corrupt rezoning.

It was difficult and frustrating. At the Council HQ in O’Connell St., we spent interminable hours in a sparsely populated chamber arguing against motions to destroy green lungs and sensitive landscapes for the benefit of developers, only to be outvoted by a surge of the rest of the 72 Councillors piling in from nearby Conway’s pub intoxicated with the drink which landowners, developers and their bagmen had plied them with.

Scandalously this went on for months while the leadership of the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael parties largely stood idly by as their Councillors cheated the people of Dublin. This is probably what the Mahon Tribunal Report refers to when it says, ‘Given the existence of such rampant public corruption, the obvious question is why it was allowed to continue unabated. The short answer to that question is that it continued because nobody was prepared to do enough to stop it.’

I regret that the last phrase about ‘nobody was prepared to do enough to stop it’ isn’t qualified to say that indeed there were a few Councillors and some community activists who put themselves under huge pressure and stress in trying to stop the corruption but weren’t in a position to prove what they knew to be going on. The Report refers to a ‘series of Irish Times articles in July 1993 openly discussed the payment of money by developers to elected councillors.’ These articles make honourable mention of those who were trying to highlight and oppose the abuse.

Today the Tribunal Report needs to be looked at from the wider angle that points up the connection between the corruption and dishonesty it found and the current fate of our economy. The relationship between Fianna Fail and major players in the property development world resulted in them exercising inordinate influence to the extent where construction came to account for one fifth of the economy, an unheard of situation in any developed economy.
We now know that the projects that resulted were financed by massive loans from assorted speculators, bondholders and major European financial institutions seeking easy and quick profits from the obscene prices which the unfortunate young generation were forced to pay to meet their human need for a home.

The gigantic pyramid scheme that resulted inevitably crashed, bringing the rest of the domestic economy into crisis also.
This disaster was, and still is, magnified a hundred fold by the savage austerity that has been imposed by the capitulation of two Irish governments to the demands of the financial markets and the European political establishment that the speculators’ gigantic losses be placed on the shoulders of the Irish people. And here we return to the Household Tax.

The Household Charge has been imposed as part of the bailout and austerity programme. It is a precursor to a new tier of taxation parallel to income tax, VAT and the raft of stealth taxes applied over the last few years. This is demanded by the Troika as part of the bailout programme. But it is a tax too far.

The majority of the decent tax compliant people who have been the bedrock of finance for our society and public services are in open revolt. They understand that, if allowed to be implemented, home and water taxes will become an economic millstone which they cannot bear. They are also in revolt against the disastrous effect of the austerity policy that is driving these taxes and the Boycott is their weapon to oppose and to demand change. Out of 1,800,000 households, a massive 80% have not registered so far. By the government deadline of March 31, we are looking at an historic people’s rebellion that the government better heed.

Press Statement: Majority in society pay massive price for corruption and dishonesty

2012-03-23T16:03:05Z

Joe Higgins Press Statement on the Mahon Report:

“The report of the Mahon Tribunal is a damning indictment of the corrupt nexus beween developers and establishment politicians especially from Fine Fail.

It will serve to remind people of the scandalous rezonings and related bribery that came to light 15 years ago and the disastrous effects on proper planning in greater Dublin.

The publication of the Mahon Report at this time will also lead people to draw a correct conclusion that the disastrous crash in the Irish economy is a direct result of the inordinate power and influence afforded by the FF/PD Government to speculators, developers and major financiers. Their profiteering and the massive house prices they extorded inevitably crashed the construction industry with disastrous consequences for the economy. They are directly responsible for the crisis today.

The disastrous austerity policies carried on by the FG/Labour Government from their predecessors are wrecking society as evidenced in massive unemployment, cuts in services and a raft of attacks on living standards through wage cuts and stealth taxes. The Household Tax is but the latest attack on ordinary people arising from the crisis. The Mahon Report will increase the anger among the huge swathe of people opposed to this tax and will strenghten the boycott against it.”

Video: Corruption revealed by Mahon report will strenghten boycott of Household Tax

2012-03-22T17:59:04Z

I bring the Tánaiste back to what he stated in the Chamber yesterday on the household charge when he asserted that people wished to pay. Members of the Government have been stating all week that the reason 83% of householders have not registered and paid as of last night is they all are waiting until the last minute. I suggest to the Tánaiste that he is delusional about what is happening in this regard.

I put it to him that this is on the Marie Antoinette scale of delusion and that he is completely out of touch. I also put it to him that the herd of elephants stampeding from Malin Head to Mizen Head completely unseen by the Government is evidence that there is a massive revolt under way among the ordinary, decent, compliant tax-paying majority in society against a new tier of taxation that they understand will quickly rise to a figure of €1,000 and above.

Video: Joe Higgins calls on Government to immediately introduce a wealth tax

2012-03-14T10:52:57Z

I refer to the Sunday Independent of last Sunday. In case the Taoiseach does not know, his Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, will tell him it is not a left-leaning or socialist news-sheet. In a thorough survey the Sunday Independent found that the 300 super-richest people in this country increased their wealth between March last year and March this year, from an incredible €57 billion to €62 billion, in round figures which is an increase of €5 billion. That year coincides exactly with the lifetime of this Government.

In this impressive survey, I have to say, Nick Webb, the business editor, points out that the rich list total nearly matches our bailout. He further mentions new yachts, magnificent palaces in the sun, stupendous art works, football clubs and concludes that it was a good year for the super-rich.

However, it was not a good year for people with a disability because the Taoiseach maintained the cuts in the pensions for the blind, he cut the fuel allowance for elderly people and he attacked the precarious economic situation of one-parent families. These people are clinging for economic survival to the edge, along with the millions of ordinary people, low and middle income workers, who are suffering from his austerity.

Household Tax Campaign Video

2012-03-14T11:01:56Z

It can also be downloaded to be shown at public meetings etc, simply click here.

Comment: Government must be held accountable for blackmail clause

2012-03-14T11:12:41Z

‘The European train will be leaving the station on January 1, 2013 and the Irish people should be on board.’ So declared Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the Dail on Wednesday morning in response to a question of mine relating to the Referendum on the EU Fiscal Compact which the government has been obliged to call. The Taoiseach was speaking in Irish as it was ‘Lá na Gaeilge’, with Leaders’ Questions in Irish. However, the impression he was trying to convey was false in any language, which is that rejecting the Fiscal Compact would somehow mean not continuing as a member of the European Union or indeed as part of the Eurozone.

The Taoiseach evaded the main question that he was being asked in relation to the assertion that any EU Member State which rejects the compact would not be able to access funds from the European Stability Mechanism(ESM) in the event that this was needed. When the Treaty establishing the ESM as a bailout fund was signed in July of 2011, there was no mention of forcing participating Member States to implement aggressive deficit limitation and to sharply increase the power of the EU Commission to interfere in their financial affairs.

However in an amended version signed on February 2 this year, we find the clause, ‘It is acknowledged and agreed that the granting of financial assistance in the framework of new programmes under the ESM will be condition, as of March 2013, on the ratification of the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance(Fiscal Compact) by the ESM member concerned.’ This is a blackmail clause designed to put pressure on the Member States to ratify the Fiscal Treaty.

There was no public debate about this change before it was signed. It was done quietly behind the backs of the people of Europe. Taoiseach Enda Kenny signed this amended agreement, thus conniving with the blackmailing of the Irish people in the event of a Referendum being held in this State, which is now of course the case.

It is extraordinary that the Prime Minister of any country in the position that Ireland has been reduced to by the activities of the financial speculators, should agree to clause like. Obviously, the Irish government wanted itself to have the propaganda weapon of being able to say to the Irish people that we would be isolated and bereft of any help in the event that the country experienced further difficulties necessitating some kind of financial assistance from the EU. And indeed we have already heard government spokespeople use language like this in advocating support for the compact which we on the Left are labelling the ‘Austerity Treaty’.

However, embarrassingly for the government and the backbench deputies from Fine Gael and the Labour Party, the story doesn’t end there. You see, even if the Taoiseach has signed the amended ESM Treaty, it cannot be ratified by this state until all the legal architecture has been put in place which includes also a change to one of the two cornerstone treaties of the EU, The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union which requires unanimity to be accepted. That legal framework has still to be brought before the Dail and it has to be voted on and passed there.

This now raises starkly whether the backbench members of the government parties are going to support handing the EU bureaucracy a big stick to wave over out people’s heads in the upcoming Referendum to get the people to vote ‘Yes’. And not just the EU bureaucracy of course but also the political establishment in this State in what will be a hard fought contest.

The fact that the Irish government could at this stage, still demand that the blackmail clause be removed and refuse to do so, reduces mightily their ability to use it as a weapon to pressurise the Irish people. They will be labelled as hypocrites if they persist in this charade.

The government was anxious to have the blackmail argument because they have very little positive reasons to recommend the Treaty to the Irish people. They couldn’t dare repeat the headline argument and posters that were used during the Lisbon Campaign that ‘Yes’ would mean ‘investment and jobs.’ Instead more general arguments will be used along the lines that passing it will mean that Ireland will be intrinsically linked to the European Union and garner good will. That is contradicted by the the stony hearted EU bureaucracy which, together with their counterparts in the IMF and ECB, have demanded that the ordinary working people the unemployed, pensioners and the poor must endure crushing austerity to channel massive resources to salvage the skins of the European financial speculators. The government will now be challenged to remove the blackmail and can expect a torrid time if they refuse.

Video: Ag troid i gcoinne an Chonradh Deine

2012-03-13T09:39:51Z

The title of this video is ‘Joe Higgins tackles Government on Austerity Treaty’

All Dail proceeding were taken through Irish on the morning of Wednesday 7th March. Joe’s column this week covers the same topic if you require an English explanation of the debate.

Deir cinnlínte i nuachtáin na maidne go bhfuil an Stát chun moill a lorg maidir le híocíocht an €3.1 billiún a bhaineann le Banc Angla Éireannach. An bhfuil sé sin fíor? Cad atá ag tarlú, go cruinn, i láthair na huaire?

Go dtí seo, dúirt an Taoiseach nach raibh an Stát ag lorg aon laghdú maidir le híoc as na fiacha de chuid lucht speiciléireachta, baincéirí móra na hEorpa láire ar ndóigh. An bhfuil sé sin á n-athrú ag an Rialtas anois? Le reifreann ar an chomhshocrú fioscach a chur chun cinn nach bhfuil sé soiniciúil amach is amach go bhfuil cinnlínte den tsórt seo á chur chun cinn agus go bhfuil an Rialtas ag ligint air go bhfuil sé ag iarraidh na fiacha seo a laghdú?

Comment: Belmayne residents victims of speculator’s greed

2012-03-07T12:51:58Z

It might be expected that when it is brought to the attention of the leader of this State that a group of citizens is being treated shabbily by public or private agencies, or both, with dire consequences for their lives and welfare, he would attempt to get to the heart of the issue and find a resolution. Residents of Belmayne
situated on the north Dublin ‘fringe’ would have been dismayed, therefore, to see Taoiseach Enda Kenny react in exactly the opposite way when some serious issues they face were outlined to him in the Dail on Wednesday.

Belmayne is a large new residential area which opened around 2005. Some of the apartment blocks are of four storey timber frame construction, a relatively recent development in this State. From the beginning of their residency, a substantial number of new homeowners experienced serious noise problems in their new homes. Sound travelled easily between apartments causing grave disturbance and stress. That such a defect should exist is quite incredible in view of the fact that some of the four bedroom apartments were sold
for €600,000. These, by the way, were purchased, not by wealthy people but by middle income workers in what they thought at the time were steady and safe jobs.

Acoustic experts, engaged by residents to investigate, quickly identified more serious problems than noise. When plasterboard was removed to check on sound insulation, it could be seen that there were serious breaches of building regulations for fire safety. In essence killer smoke and fire could travel rapidly from one apartment to the next because there was a lack of required fire retarding measures in
place.

In March 2010, a number of residents had a meeting with the Chief Officer of Dublin City Council and the developer where evidence, including detailed photographs, was presented by a fire expert for
the residents. According to the residents they were assured that the Council would deal expeditiously with their problems.

A Fire Inspector did arrive out at Belmayne in April and carried out an inspection. The evidence was clearly displayed to him, photographs were taken and residents were certain that rapid remedial action would
follow.

On July 8 an email was received from the Chief Fire Officer that horrified the affected residents. He wrote that following an inspection by a fire engineer, ‘there is no reason for you to be concerned that your premises is of deficient construction from a fire safety point of view.’ This was extraordinary in view of the blatantly
obvious facts on the ground. Residents suspected that Dublin City Council were trying to cover over the deficiencies for various reasons.

Insurance companies, FBD and Zurich, did not delay however in refusing new fire insurance cover in Belmayne.
Now Dublin City Council says that in January of this year, they were informed by the developer in Belmayne that there was after all a problem. The story went that a pipe had leaked in an apartment and when the plasterboard was removed, defects in fire prevention measures were noticed. The Minister of Housing attending Cabinet, Jan O Sullivan, told the Dail on Tuesday afternoon that, ‘The (Dublin City) Fire Officer carried out an inspection and determined that remedial action was necessary and timely.’ Dublin City Council were giving the impression that they had just learned of fire safety issues in Belmayne covering up the extensive amount of information that had been revealed to them since March.

The developer has just told residents they may have to move out for three or four days for this work. On Wednesday morning in the Dail, when the Taoiseach was being appraised of this disgraceful situation,
he chose to divert attention from the real issues by pretending that is Minister of Housing was being accused of telling lies when he knew well the point was that she had repeated what she had been told, not knowing the real situation.

The question that arises is why stressed out residents were fobbed off and misled by Dublin City Council fire authorities with such serious issues at stake. Was it that the fire safety defects revealed that there was not proper oversight of the construction by the building regulation authorities thus allowing widespread non compliance? Was it that Dublin City Council, at the time these problems were brought to its attention, was in the process of buying or had already bought in Belmayne 25 hitherto unsold residential units without proper
investigation? Was it that the whole certification process for new building is seriously flawed?

The government cannot obfuscate on this. The lives of residents and their wellbeing are too important for that. The Minister for the Environment must initiate a thorough investigation. He must now demand immediate enforcement of the regulations no matter what that costs and the costs must be met by those responsible.

Video: Government tries to silence allegation of Belmayne fire hazard cover-up

2012-02-29T15:45:00Z

Some months after the scandal of the fire hazard at Priory Hall, which is causing awful hardship to the innocent residents there, another fire hazard scandal is unfolding at Belmayne, which is also on the north Dublin fringe. Kitara developers have written to hundreds of apartment owners to tell them they might have to move out of their homes for three or four days to allow fire hazards to be corrected.

The issue that needs urgent Government action is the fact that the developer, Dublin City Council and the council’s most senior fire authority officers are deliberately, dishonestly and seriously underestimating the extent of the fire hazards they have just acknowledged. Therefore, the extent of the construction works that will be necessary is being seriously underestimated. The unfortunate consequence for the innocent residents who are affected, some of whom paid €600,000 for their apartments, will be disruption.

They are not millionaires – they are working people. The reason the risk is being underestimated is that for a full year, there has been a cover-up – unfortunately – by Dublin City Council of scandalous breaches of fire safety regulations in Belmayne.

CAHWT Press Statement: 92% still not paying home tax with one month to go

2012-02-28T09:45:53Z

Only 133,365 properties have registered and paid the household tax, amounting to only 8% registration with one month to go. The figures were revealed on Morning Ireland by the head of the household charge board.

This confirms that mass non-registration of the tax is entirely possible. The CAHWT calls on householders to maintain the boycott of what is an austerity tax to benefit the bondholders and super wealthy.

The CAHWT will hold a major rally a week before the registration deadline in The National Stadium, Dublin.

Info: Ruth Coppinger 087-6730187; Gregor Kerr 086-1501151; John Lyons 087-7729292.