New Stealth Taxes are smack in the face – Kelly

Wexford Sinn Féin oppose proposed water charges and household tax.

Cllr Anthony Kelly has condemned government plans to proposals to implement two new stealth taxes in the form of water and property charges. The Wexford Borough Councillor has said that these new charges will drive ordinary Wexford families further into government enforced poverty. He also question why the Labour party were now prepared to support and implement extreme austerity measures while only a few months ago they were condemning the Fianna Fail/ Green coalition for doing the same thing.

“So much for election promises,” Cllr Kelly said, “Fine Gael and Labour promised change, yet the ordinary people of this county, the working poor, the unemployed and the sick are facing the same type of austerity measures that became the hallmark of the Fianna Fail led government. These same people have had to cope with huge cuts to public services, rising costs and the coalition’s failure to create a single job since entering government. They are also the very same people who are footing the bill for this Government’s decision to pump yet more billions into the failed banking system. They are now being asked to take greater pain in the form of these two new stealth taxes. This can only be described as a smack in the face for people who are already struggling.”

“Sinn Féin is fundamentally opposed to the imposition of these charges. We have constantly shown how money could and should be raised through reform of the taxation system, elimination of waste in the public sector and through investing in jobs. We have told the last two governments that acceptance of an austerity doctrine, instead of facing up to the situation we are in with a progressive reform and stimulus plan, can only lead to further contraction of the economy. The recent rise in unemployment figures proves that government cuts are stalling any hope of recovery. The only thing the government will achieve by introducing these new taxes is the further impoverishment of the Irish people.”