Household Tax Protestors call for a No vote to Treaty on Wexford Quays

“We won’t be scare-mongered into voting yes to a treaty that institutionalises austerity.” That was the message being sent out by protestors against the household tax during a belated May Day Rally on Wexford's Quays last Saturday.  Cllr Anthony Kelly, Enniscorthy Cllr Jackser Owens, local musician Daithi Kavanagh and Ferns based fire-fighter Dominic Gaughan were among the speakers at the event.

“Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour took a political decision,” Dominic Gaughan said, “They decided that the banks were too big to fail and that citizens were too small to matter. We need a new government in this country. A government that will always remember that banks can sometimes fail but the citizens will never ever be too small to matter.”

Cllr Anthony Kelly urged the protestors to campaign against the austerity treaty as vigorously as they had against the household tax, as the two issues are unavoidably linked. Cllr Kelly stressed that the ratification of the fiscal compact treaty would lead to the introduction of more unfair taxes like the household charge and massive rises in existing taxes.

“The EU Fiscal Compact Treaty, or the Austerity Treaty as it should be known, seeks to permanently institutionalise austerity in this state,” Cllr Kelly said, “It sets out to make the cuts and taxes that have caused such misery and stagnation legally binding and an integral part of our constitution. It sets out to tie the hands of future governments and future generations of Irish men and women, leaving them to live their whole lives under the dark clouds of permanent austerity. It fair to say if this treaty gets through, we ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Earlier in the day Wexford Sinn Féin held a protest outside the constituency office of Brendan Howlin TD, which is housed in the SIPTU building in Coolcots. Cllr Anthony Kelly criticised both Minister Howlin’s Labour party and SIPTU for supporting the Fiscal Compact Treaty which will so obviously hurt their collective memberships and ordinary people across the state.