Madam, – What a disappointment to read the recipe for recovery as detailed by the Central Bank (Business This Week, January 30th). In this time of financial crisis for so many, this is a key institution which should be offering a carefully detailed plan of how to proceed over the next three years. Instead we get a suggestion to blanket-bomb the entire housing stock of the State with a €1,000 tax on each dwelling. Had any thought been given to this it would be obvious that while the man living in a Georgian mansion might be able to pay, the man living solely on an old-age pension certainly would not.
And there is the tired old argument about having to pay for free water supply, free third-level education and free travel for OAPs when we all know that these things are not free but are paid for out of taxes collected from every worker in the State. This is just a euphemism for having to pay on the double.
Sure, times are tough, and tough measures are called for – but so are fair ones. Fairness, equality of treatment and sharing the burden: these are not just buzz-words, these are standards to be taken into consideration when planning the way forward.
In the words of my old school reports: poor effort, must do better. – Yours, etc,