Madam, - Commenting on the jailing of Joe Higgins and Clare Daly, you state: "The issue goes deeper than bin charges, to the rule of law and the democratic validity of lawful decisions" (Editorial, September 27th). Indeed it does.
For decades wealthy sectors of Irish society have been involved in the criminal evasion of due taxes with few lectures from The Irish Times on the "rule of law". Solicitors, and accountants facilitated this evasion while waged and salaried workers on PAYE taxation funded State services.
In 1981-82 the refusal of the wealthy to pay due taxes, together with Government tolerance of this tax evasion, contributed to a financial crisis and three elections in the space of 18 months.
Alan Dukes, Minister for Finance in the 1982-87 Fine Gael-Labour Government, apparently felt so strongly about tax evasion that legislation allowing the jailing of tax evaders was introduced. But instead of collecting the hundreds of millions in due taxes and jailing the tax evaders, Alan Dukes and Dick Spring introduced "service charges" in 1983. These charges have been opposed ever since by PAYE taxpayers.
The tax evaders were offered three amnesties during these past 20 years by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party. Aside from these "special offers", the amount of due taxes written off by the Revenue Commissioners in each year from 1983 to 2001 exceeded the total double-taxation "service charges" levied by local authorities throughout the State.
Lazy journalists are allowing the 20-year struggle against double taxation to be presented as a case of "spongers" refusing to pay an environmental levy. The truth is that the origins of water charges, bin charges and assorted other service charges have nothing whatever to do with protecting the environment and in reality are part of the moves to privatise every municipal services with the potential to provide profits for the private sector.
Of course there is a waste management crisis which has to be resolved - and the campaigners against bin charges and other service charges want bins collected, adequate recycling facilities, and taxes on producers at such a level as to force them to produce less wasteful packaging.
As for the "rule of law", Tony Gregory TD has pointed to the contradiction between the treatment of Joe Higgins and Clare Daly and the failure to act against the wealthy elements in society which transgress the law.
No owner or operator of an illegal dump as been arrested and brought to Mountjoy. Former Government Ministers have lied to and obstructed tribunals, for which the appropriate sentence is two years. Tax evasion has been proven at the tribunal into the beef Industry and the current tribunals into political corruption but nobody has spent time in Mountjoy. Perjury is a regular feature of the tribunals. Gardaí who have assaulted citizens and then charged the victims with assault have made financial settlements on the steps of the High Court. They are still in uniform and Mr McDowell thinks that they are a few rotten apples.
I was in the court for the contempt case against both Higgins and Daly and heard the judge say that Fingal County Council's claims of intimidation by Joe Higgins and Clare Daly were not accepted by the Court. In my view their crime is that they have provided leadership in a serious, well-organised campaign for justice in the taxation system.
The implications of the court ruling in the case is that if a peaceful protest campaign successfully uses placards and picketing to appeal to the class solidarity of workers, the government of the day can appeal to the courts for a directive to arrest unnamed people in attempts to break this political protest.
This judgment has far reaching implications for democracy in Ireland and must be opposed. - Yours, etc.,
EMMETT FARRELL, Steering Committee, Dublin Campaign Against the Bin Tax, Dublin 8.
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Madam, - I fully endorse the comments of Leo Varadkar (September 24th). As I write, there are half-a-dozen overflowing bins on the roadway outside my house, but owing to the actions of a small, unrepresentative, self-elected group of protesters, the Council has been unable to collect our rubbish. This is a hazard to pedestrians and traffic but will shortly become a health hazard as well.
I have no difficulty in paying the charge for this essential service. We cannot expect to services such as bin collection and water for nothing. Why should Dublin/Fingal residents not have similar charges to other parts of Ireland? I have been advised that in cases of need the council rightly waive them.
Mr Joe Higgins TD and his comrades are entitled to protest as much as they wish providing they stay within the law.
These people do not speak or act on my behalf so I would request that they desist from their ongoing mantra of acting for all the PAYE inhabitants of Fingal. - Yours, etc.,
GERRY GILLIGAN, Kirkpatrick Drive, Castleknock, Dublin
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Madam, - Leo Varadkar is appalled at the bin-tax protests.He likens bin collection to television, heating oil and postal services and concludes that we must pay as we go. He does not, of course, liken bin collection to health care or education as this would not suit his conclusion.
The reality is that, unlike post, the collection and management of waste is an absolute social necessity for all. A failure to post a letter now and again is not likely to expose someone to a serious risk of disease, just as a decision to not own a TV is not going to lead to rat infestation. Like health care and education, the collection of each person's refuse is necessary for the individual and the general good. As such, in a progressive society, it should be paid for through a system of progressive taxation where those who earn more pay more, both as a total and as a proportion of income.
Mr Varadkar acknowledges that there was a tax increase to compensate for the abolition of rates, but insists that recent tax cuts have reversed this increase. In fact, these tax cuts were solely for the purpose of sweetening the pill of minimal wage increases for the majority, while the wealthy gorged themselves on the produce of a booming economy. As such, these cuts are perfectly in harmony with the bin-tax policies of a government whose priority is the transfer of wealth to the wealthy.
Fair play to Joe Higgins and Clare Daly. If only we had more public representatives like ye! - Yours, etc.,
MIKE MURPHY, Belmont Park, Ballinlough, Cork.