Property Tax, Fianna Fail and Peter Matthews August 28, 2012
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Irish Politics.trackback
So , despite having signed up to a Property Tax with the EU/IMF in the Four Year National Recovery Plan, Fianna Fail have come out against introducing a Property Tax now and quite reasonably (cough) , Senator Darragh O’Brien commented that (note… it’s a link to the FF website)
“… The Government needs to acknowledge that they have mishandled the entire issue to date and go back to the drawing board. Now is not the time to burden people with already difficult or unsustainable mortgages with more property charges. The Government needs to prioritise efforts to address the mortgage arrears crisis first and get people back to work before introducing any new charges on people’s homes.”
Of course this all stinks of opportunism from FF and it’s actually quite handy for them to oppose the introduction of a Property Tax. Then when the Property Tax is brought in, then to oppose whatever method is chosen to implement and of course whatever method is devised to collect it. Then they will oppose the number of exemptions as either too high or too low.
Now it remains to be seen if anyone is listening to them but with the Indo and other media already in a flurry over Property Tax, its an opportunity for them. With no TD’s in Dublin (where the main burden of the tax will land), they have the luxury of being able to play to all the interest groups be they urban, rural, PAYE workers, unemployed, farming or self employed.
As an aisde did anyone watch last nights Fintan O’Toole presented Tonight with Vincent Browne which discussed the Property Tax. I was amazed to hear Fine Gael TD for Dublin South (or wherever he hangs his hat after the Constituency commission review) Peter Matthews mention that he personally would be in favour of raising corporation tax and tax higher incomes more. His comments must have raised a few eyebrows in Government buildings.
The comments by Matthews are astounding. Both because he is nominally a member of FG (although he clearly has not drank from the party Kool Aid) and because his comment on raising CT went unchallenged. If the likes of Higgins or Boyd-Barret came out with a comment like that you could guarantee they would be shouted down. Peter states that we can easily raise our CT to 15% and noone would blink.
This certainly puts Matthews to the left of Labour. Arguably to the left of Sinn Fein too.
AHA! Peter Matthews is the Labour Left!
Mathews described himself on the Vincent Browne programme before the general election (and possibly before he joined FG) as being a “social democrat”. What took him into the current incarnation of FG, Lord alone knows.
It may be a case of ‘they asked first’ – I have recently discovered that there are a healthy number of TDs/ex-Tds who joined parties on this criterion alone.
My FF councillor councillor was a teenager when the 1999 local elections were held, and he decided that politics would be an interesting career. He wrote to what he has described as “all” of the parties, and joined the only one that replied — FF.
I know someone who joined the Socialist Party on much the same basis. Not, thankfully that he was looking for a career, but he was young, interested in politics and wrote away to all of the parties.
I say thankfully because if I were a guidance counselor, I would have to strongly advise young people against joining any small left wing party to further their ambitions to hold elected office!
Teenagers can be forgiven. Most are probably only getting interested in politics at this time. It is, I suppose, a step up from the many, many people who just vote the way their parents voted. Fortunately, both of mine were from north of the border and didn’t know a damn thing about the various political parties in the Republic. I was nerdy enough to go away when I was 16 or 17 and read the party manifestos. I then tried to discern which were closest to my views. That was a torrent of bullshit to wade through. Never again.
I was thinking of a number of people who, as adults, joined some of the ‘left wing’ parties solely on the basis that they asked first. They then ran as candidates despite the fact that they didn’t agree with half of the stuff in the party’s constitution or whatever programme had been passed at the various conventions. (That is, of course, if they actually bothered to read the party constitution in the first place.)
The idea of “being interested in politics” in the mode of wanting to join a party and not then picking a party based on anything to do with its platform — however that might be understood or misunderstood, however broad or particular the basis might be — but just on the fact that the party writes to you suggests to me that there isn’t a true interest in politics. There may be an interest in joining something, or in participating in the non-blood sport that passes for politcs, but it ain’t politics in my book.
I see your point and your anecdote above does scream ‘careerist bastard’. How fortunate that he should land upon the party of the most successful careerist bastards in the history of the state. Some would say it was written in the stars.
To take it even further, there are those who are interested in politics but only in the sense that it relates to a narrow issue or view (i.e. the placing of a filling station or a local shopping centre; hospital etc.). They join with a party and then go with the flow on the rest (with the aid of the party whip). I think that is why the big two are so cult-like. They have to breed this obedience or such a broad church will never survive.
Maybe he thought it was the last place anyone would think to look?
I think Matthews was sold a pup when he agreed to run for FG. He must have assumed (or been assured) that his knowledge of the banking and financial sector would have been put to good use.
Instead , like another ‘expert’ George Lee, he was sidelined to the backbenches.
So now he’s happy to be his own man and comment as he likes. Would he be so brave as to vote against the government on an issue of substance I wonder?
That whole area of Dublin he represents will be a bloodbath the next time out. Part of Dublin South went to Dun Laoghaire , another to Dublin South West and 3 seats to the new Dublin Rathdown. Its fairly crowded with FG TDs and Sean Barrett being automatically returned too.
There’s already a high profile Independent in Shane Ross, so that narrows down his chances running as an Independent.
If he goes the social democrat route, he might stand a chance of mopping up some Labour votes and perhaps even stealing a few more from disillusioned voters.