The Household Charge, blustering arrogance and Environment Minister Phil Hogan’s fumbling.

A transcript of Olivia O’Leary’s radio ‘column‘ on last night’s Drivetime:

“I paid my household charge early last week. Just as well I did, because if I’d been listening to Big Phil blustering on the radio on Sunday, I might have been tempted not to. Almost all on his own, Hogan is fast generating for this Government what destroyed the last one – an air of bullying incompetence. It’s a crying shame because there was a really important job of political work to be done here – a widened tax base, which includes annual property taxes, is an essential reform and might have played an important part in dampening the property boom. The problem with introducing that reform is that Irish people have resisted property taxes fiercely for decades. They were bound to resist this one. So they needed to be firmly encouraged, exhorted, guided, given no excuse. Hogan has managed to give them every excuse.

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