Sir, - As someone who has been involved in the anti service charges campaign since 1983, the words "On return to office, Fianna Fail will abolish these charges and repeal the legislation under which they are imposed" are indelibly marked on my brain. It was like the ghost of Christmas past, hearing those words again recently, but this time Fianna Fail applies them not to service charges, which it didn't abolish, but to the Residential Property Tax.
I have always felt that the only way in which these charges would be abolished would be at national level by repealing the Act, and by putting in place a fair system of funding local government which also takes account of the burden of taxation the PAYE sector hears.
As a member of Democratic Left, I am proud of the fact that the only movement made on this issue was achieved, at DL insistence, in the programme for this Government. Important as that was, it falls far short of what we ultimately want. I, for one, will judge the mettle of Fianna Fail on the basis of what it does, not what it says. - Yours, etc.,
Leixlip Park,
Leixlip, Co Kildare.