The Carbon Tax

by Declan Cullen - None Tue Dec 08, 2009 20:43

Stortford wrote the following words:

'Do we really grasp what it is like for those myriads of people who live in drought stricken countries? We see the poverty of spirit, will and being on our TV screens but do we really want to grasp?'

My question to Stortford is, do the Irish people have to be dragged into absolute grinding poverty before the people that are so concerned about Africa, Asia, etc are happy.

by Declan Cullen - None Tue Dec 08, 2009 20:27

I wonder how willing the justice system will be to jail people who can't pay their TV licence, Credit Union loan, etc seeing that they gave the ones who caused the meltdown a 'get out of jail free card' I know I am stating the obvious, but somebody has to.
The Carbon Tax will push the citizens of Ireland further into poverty and all people want to talk about is Jordan, Tiger Woods, etc.
These are all distractions for weak minded people who live their lives never challenging anyone and believing everything that they are told.

by Karma Wed Nov 25, 2009 22:55

Watch how it all pans out regarding how little money is used to help the victims of flood in Ireland and how grudgingly it is doled out versus how much went to the banks and developers and how willingly that was doled out. Remember the Billions that went into zombie bank Anglo Irish when they are telling us on RTE that the money is not there to help these folk, or pay the overtime for emergency low paid frontline staff

by Stortford - Enviornmental Concern Wed Nov 25, 2009 17:16

Crem

Thanks for the verse and the words 'After the Deluge' - how appropriate as the country is driven to despair with the impact of extreme weather conditions.

Reading the words make me think of Malthus and his theories back in the 1800's that our world would be overpopulated. I fear his predictions will ring through. Already rice is a scare resource with a rising price that affects 3 bn people in Asia and Africa - and this is only a today example. Do we really grasp what it is like for those myriads of people who live in drought stricken countries? We see the poverty of spirit, will and being on our TV screens but do we really want to grasp?

Realistically, we hear and see via TV, web etc. what is happening in the West of Ireland but the fact is when it does not financially or emotionally affect us, we step aside from it, as we have been conditioned to do by an overspill of hardship from media coverage.

It is interesting to hear that we have a humanitarian fund in place but more interesting is that the Government have covered the Lacunae. A means test now determines whether you are eligible. Yes, here we have more of the dreaded bureaucracy.

After the Deluge and Jackson Browne....we really need to start seeing, hearing, feeling, touching what our world is and give nature the dignity it deserves.

Stortford

by CREM Tue Nov 24, 2009 19:52 info at crem-ltd dot com Ennis, Co. Clare

Declan
Considering the amount of rain that fell in the past week as predicted by Global Warming and the evidence of thousands of independent scientists ,your rant reminds me of the Jackson Browne song "Before the Deluge" of which I enclose a verse:

“ Some of them were angry at the way the earth was abused,
By the men who learned to forge her beauty into power,
And they struggled to protect us from them only to be confused,
By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour.
And when the sand was gone and the time arrived,
In the naked dawn only a few survived,
And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge,
Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge.”

Crem

by Stortford - Victims of the Property Boom and particularly families Sat Nov 14, 2009 17:15

The Movie, if we haven't seen it, we somehow know about it.

The Late Late last night neatly included that social and ethical plight of some of our young people who were 'sucked into' loans by financial institutions that are totally non realistic with the benefit of hindsight.

What are we going to do? Yes, the people of Ireland, the people who fought for the 3F's in the 1800's (fixity of tenure - being the one we need to focus on now).

The young mother of three small children, a woman who bought into the dream and decided to move to Cavan to rear their children. She is a bright woman, and no doubt a good mother and yet we are willing to allow our Government and the Banks destroy a family unit that appears to be 'working'. Why would one do this? We know better surely. If you watch the TV programmes and look at psychologist Coleman work with different mothers and their interaction and the impact of stress, then there is no reason that we as human beings would want to spare people who have chosen to have a family (who are the providers of this generation's pension fund) undue stress.

The Negative Equity trap that happened in the 1980's/90's in the UK bit many an Irish person badly. Some if they had qualifications managed to emigrate, oven to Third World countries, others just threw the keys and their future potential to have a credit rating through the letter box. The couple last night are considering this option. What an inheritance for them and for their children and they so young? Now surely Climate Change becomes relevant for those in the much affect building game to match the Government's demands to comply with say the BER Certification for house rental/or house sale. Where is FAS and re-training? ANCO in the 1970's trained many a good entreprenneur! It is necessary now to keep people in employment in this country to embrace change.

What is the Government going to do? The man from MABS briefly outlined what services are available and highlighted the options in the UK market. The framework exists, we just need a few more ideas and brainwaves to create a solution.

The young woman from Cavan said they paid euros 210,000 for their house adjacent to the school and that now the market is so bad they probably would not even receive a bid. She said that a builder was selling new houses near to their house for as little as euros 88,000. What this tells us is that over a period of say 25 years for a loan, that a period of unemployment and economic turmoil was not taken into account by the actuaries for the Lender i.e. the banks. Yes, the banks failed to assess the Risk. Can anyone look at the figures and come up with a suitable risk assessment and package for these young parents facing the onslaught of eviction, possibly no rent allowance from the state (apparently if they throw in keys, they are not eligible for assistance - which is devious and wrong, given this was paid willy nilly over the boom years to many a person in this country either via the Community Welfare system or the HSE to all and sundry.

The developers are in the commercial courts but I am unsure about where these 'debtors' are dealt with. Actuarial science is highly mathematical and risk based. If there are some 35,000 already in difficulties with their mortgages and they are un-represented by the legal profession due to the vagaries of income allowances and deposits, why can't MAB move up a category, employ some more people and even entertain the rforming of sets of co-operatives embracing the needs for climate change and re-deployment of people, through sponsorship.

The 1980's created major hassle in the UK when prices rose consistently in the dormitory towns particularly. One week you could pay euros 90,000 for a 2 bed flat which one month later was worth nearly sterling 140,000. What happened? within 6 months the interest rates doubled from 7% to over 14% and those on non fixed rate loans were burnt to cinders. Your Stg£1,000 mortgage became Stg1,600 over night and employment hit crisis with many people losing both jobs. Many Irish were affected badly at this time. However, we know the outcome. Part of it you can put down to life-long learning curve but I ask what un-necessary hardships are caused going further and now that we live so much longer - what is the cost going further. (The flat that cost £90,000 that rose to £140,000 reduced to Stg65,000 for 10 years or more).

I see an avenue through MABS, the like of the Free Legal Aid Services, and some of those people like Bono who decided to find tax havens rather than support their own, to give some money back to our young people with families and work opportunities also.

NAMA according to Somers is reliant on assessing the risk and arriving a valuation price. Surely the same applies for people who mortgaged their properties in good faith. A discount to cover the losses now and going forward can be accessed in a similar way. Nothing ought to be impossible, particularly now as world markets are beginning to lift.

Brian. I enjoyed the show and well done for keeping us alert to our social, ethical and mainly compassionate duties as people of the human race.

by Franco - Natural Resources and people ownership Thu Nov 12, 2009 17:37

Yes, Vincent Browne may be right and maybe our history of corruption and the scandals of now, will only pale in what lies ahead of us.

Who owns our natural resources really? Do we know? Do we care? Yes we do ought to be answer. We fought long and hard for our country - the Island of Ireland.

Climate change. Watch out and look out for perpetrators of potential fraud in new guises of energy provision.

Apparently top executives were arrested yesterday in Italy in relation to a wind farm probe!!! The Italian finance police, mounted an operation code named "Gone with the Wind". They arrested two prominent businessmen relating to fraud charges of obtaining public subsidies.

Code names are a good way of seeking truth!!!

by Merkel - Climate Change and Poverty are one issue Thu Nov 12, 2009 17:26

Declan and Eimear

you both could be right about Global Warming but it has Global Heads of State convinced that the focus is climate change could be a far greater crisis than the current economic crisis and this will be witnessed in time.

Rather than seeing poverty and climate change as two disaster components of a global formulae, it might be more appropriate to review it as one crisis and thereby give it the attention it deserves.

We need to examine poverty and the impact of climate change and how it impacts on say the Continent of Africa. We in the West react crisis by crisis in an episodic way. We have had the Band Aid concerts to raise money but really we must identify what is causing the problems. Today the news in is grim for Ireland, the forebodings are that we will not meet our national debts, we will not meet the targets but surely there are lessons to be learnt and new approaches that can be fostered by the people of Ireland.

The first Humanitarian, would you believe, is in fact Roger Casement and he travelled Africa and watched and wrote what he witnessed....and his reports was about plundering of the Belgian Congo, the rubber plantations etc. etc. Today we look upon Africa as a poor Continent but it is demographically poor because the people have been 'kept poor' to supply the labour force needed to harness the rich resources it has. Just think of De Beers and the diamonds and all the other examples including certain components in mobile phones. People are kept powerless in their countries, their societies are structured so that this ensures the riches are in hands of an 'elite'.

TV3 late night show with Vincent Browne outlined some interesting figures last night and they are outlined on the TV3 Vincent Browne theyweb page. It is well worth getting the averages as to who pays the most taxes and at what salary level. Knowledge empowers as they say. It is also interesting to ask who are the new elite in Ireland? How long have had their 'wealth' and how much they have? The Revenue provide details of amounts discovered from bogus bank accounts overseas and other accounts but I wonder what will unfurl now when the Fraud Squad really get to grips with the Anglo Irish accounts and others. We the people in the Island of Ireland need to keep our eye firmly on the ball and we need to keep watch for the rough and the smooth and ensuring that our natural resources, our access to control in climate change, our minerals, our Gold does not fall into the hands of a small elite of intrinsically corrupt individuals who feel superior to the masses.

What is the story about light bulbs? Did they pass into law? If so, are they safe, somebody says there are whole list of do's and don'ts if one breaks and that some have mercury in them!!

Merkel

by Eimear Dywer Thu Nov 12, 2009 11:24

Well done Declan, most people are been lead around like sheep with this global warming fairy tale.

by Waterloo - Climate Change Wed Nov 11, 2009 16:40

Declan and the Carbon Tax.

I agree with most of what you say but I have little knowledge about the environment and climate change. However, I do agree with common sense and I think the present focus by Government on penalising home owners and even speculators with taxes such as the BER tax (nb adverts on the TV), the tax for owning additional properties per dwelling and now the proposal for a property tax. We need to start thinking like some of our European neighbours like those who experience the more artic cold e.g. the Scandinavian Countries.

We need to look to our stock of houses and quite a proportion of them are old, large, with massive heat loss that need not exist. We need to encourage people use solar panels so that the heat from the sun provides the house with up to 80% of its heat. What about our Georgian Square and tourism? Do we want to allow these houses deteriorate to such a degree that the climate change provisos will be so costly that demolition will be the only answer?

A good idea would be to look to apartment blocks around our city. Let us focus on those early blocks maybe six stories high or more. Some of these have roofs that need to be updated every two decades. We could foster a Green image for the like of these buildings and copy from our European friends on their knowledge. There is an excellent website worth looking at www.treehugger.ie. People pay massive management fees to unregulated property managers and this problem will get worse rather than better. Lateral thought is needed and a form of regulation is vital. The BER is only a half hearted attempt to get revenue and to pretend to be GREEN!

Old codger and call to strike: we can march all we want but we need to shift attitudes in our politicians!!!! If they are too influenced by wealth management, we will all lose out. Just look to Obama in the US and his use of knowledge and tax breaks to the Irish who earn over a certain amount and his offer of a visa for husband, wife and children under 21...we could lose our wealth easy, if people take up on this option.

Did we have a former Taoiseach accused of certain misdemeanours with passports to Arabs!!!

by old codger - pensioner Wed Nov 11, 2009 15:59

It is time that the ordinary people started to fight back against these scumbags.
REFUSE TO PAY WATER CHARGES AND OTHER PAYMENTS IMPOSED BY THE CORRUPT POLITICIANS.
They will threaten extra charges for defaulters, but if the people stick together we can defeat them. The prisons are already overcrowded so unless they set up concentration camps, what can they do to us?
UNITY OF THE PEOPLE IS NEEDED. Stop cowering and fight.