Now that the Fiscal Treaty referendum is out of the way, the government is preparing to attack the Household Tax nonpayment movement by using the power of the state.
The Irish Independent carried articles in early June indicating that plans are afoot to send warning letters on a mass scale to non-payers over the next weeks.
The articles indicated that the powers that be may start by sending letters to owners of second homes who have not yet registered for the Household Tax; followed up by sending mass correspondence to communities with high levels of nonpayment and then send targetted letters to individuals when they have completed their checkoff of payers against databases being provided to them by the ESB, the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Welfare.
The newspaper also reported that court cases are being planned before the end of the year with non-payers being dragged before the courts by various local authorities.
It is a disgrace that the likes of ESB databases are being used to snoop and spy on ordinary citizens who refuse to pay an unjust tax. It is a double disgrace that threatening letters and court action is being planned against decent taxpayers who refuse to register for the tax which is being used to fund an unjust bailout.
It’s one law for the rich and one law for the rest in capitalist Ireland where Bertie Ahern is free to walk the streets and the Anglo criminals are kept well clear of the courts!
There is strength in numbers and ordinary householders should hold firm not just to strike a blow against the Tax but also against the entire austerity agenda which, of course, includes plans for both a property tax on the family home and water taxes.
If, and when a minority of non-payers are dragged in front of the courts the CAHWT will ensure that no one goes to court on their own. Anyone summonsed to court will go with the full support of the Campaign and the full support of their community.
The Campaign will provide legal advice and support for non-payers. It must also prioritise recruiting volunteers from the legal community over the summer so that the maximum number of non-payers can be represented by legal professionals donating their services. Mass protests will be organised outside courthouses nationwide to show support for the summonsed and to build a tsunami of pressure on Fine Gael and Labour on the issue.
