Eoghan Harris on one-off housing

GORMLEY RULES OUT FLAT-RATE WATER, PROPERTY TAXES – The Irish Times reports that Green Party leader and Minister for the Environment John Gormley has ruled out a flat-rate property tax in next year’s Budget. He has also discounted a flat-rate water charge.

The paper says there has been speculation that the Department of Finance is considering a flat-rate property tax as an interim measure until a comprehensive property valuation system is in place.

But it quotes Mr Gormley as saying that, in the case of water and property tax, it should not be on a flat-rate basis. ‘I know there are people out there who think this is the way to go, but once you do that you lose the argument. All the evidence is that people are prepared to pay taxes if they are brought in on a fair basis,’ he added.

Mr Gormley added that if people were asked to pay a flat-rate water charge, they were then likely to use as much as they wanted and there would be no environmental benefit.

Whilst never being a fan of more taxes it is good to see that there will be at least some link between cost of services provided and cost of charges levied. One applauds this approach which will see the prudent less punished than those that have had for far too long an extended free lunch.

@KerryBog2 wrote:

Link between cost and services provided? .

@KerryBog2 wrote:

I had to pay to bring ESB to my house .

All households have to pay to be connected; how far did the connection need to go from the nearest supply and how much did it cost?

@KerryBog2 wrote:

I had to bore my own well .

You will then no doubt not face water charges which if equitable will be based on consumption; there are however very many instances where local authorities have substantial bills to remediate water courses where septic tanks are defective.

@KerryBog2 wrote:

I had to install a biomass unit .

Good

@KerryBog2 wrote:

There is no public transport .

A good reason to ban one off houses they encourage excessive car use which degrades the road network.

@KerryBog2 wrote:

There is no refuse collection .

No bin charges then.

@KerryBog2 wrote:

The IS a bottlebank 5kms away .

Recycling facilities are patchy everywhere

@KerryBog2 wrote:

I must go to the nearest Dump which is 30+kms away, €18 for a car boot full. .

Which if you recycle suffciently and store non-compostible waste should be cheaper than urban based bin charges.
@KerryBog2 wrote:

The road surface of the Southern side of the Ring of Kerry is a national disgrace, potholes everywhere, subsidence, broken walls, etc. due to the thousands of cement/block/hardcore trucks that pounded the roads during the Tiger years.Very little of the contributions paid by builders has gone back into the infrastructure. .

It must have been all the cement trucks delivering the constructionmaterials required to build all the one off houses built over the past decade. Spending on non-national roads was running at €300m per year up to 2007 it would appear the Healy Raes got hoodwinked if the Ring of Kerry can’t have a resurface.

Spending on School buses exploded from €60m a year in 1999 to €192m in 2009; the decade of the one off house has left yet another cost.