To find out more about our organisation or to get involved with People Before Profit in the Clondalkin area, contact Gino by email: Gino Kenny or telephone:
+353(0)85 721 15 74
Latest
News & Events:
Where
Do We Go From Here? A Discussion Forum 23 November
2009 Pg1| Pg2
People Before Profit
says more pain for the
public
as VAT to be levied
on the Public Service
Press Release
More Pain For the Public As
VAT to be Levied on Public Services
Eu Neo-Liberal Policies
To Mean VAT On On Council Services From July.
In a statement the People
Before Profit Alliance
(PBPA) has condemned a
recent ruling of the European
Court of Justice (ECJ), which means that VAT
will now be imposed on
all local authority services
for which there is a
charge.
The PBPA statement follows
a recent meeting of the
Dublin City Council Finance
Special Policy Committee,
(SPC) where it was revealed that a
case taken by the EU commission
to the ECJ on the issue
of Ireland’s failure to
impose VAT on publicly
provided services would
mean VAT would have to
be imposed on such services
from now on.
The meeting revealed that local
authorities are currently
working with the revenue
commissioners, compiling
a list of Council services
where VAT would be applied.
It is intended that any
changes in VAT law resulting
from the Judgement will be brought forward in March/April in
the Finance Bill 2010 with a likely implementation date of
July 2010.
PBPA said that “the chickens are coming home to
roost on Ireland’s decision to sign up to EU treaties
that enshrine neo-liberal
economic policy” -
requiring that any publicly
provided service for which
there is a charge and which
may be subject to competition
must now be subject to
the same VAT as that imposed on private sector providers of
the same service.
The ECJ ruling means that
bin charges, water charges,
entry fees to public swimming
pools and any other service
provided by local authorities
for which there is a charge
will now be increased by either 13% or 21% later this year.
The logic of the ruling
was that VAT may well now
also be imposed on a whole range of other services provided
by other government or state-owned bodies.
PBPA said the imposition
of VAT on public services
provided by the local authorities
was proof positive that
the economic policies enshrined
in EU treaties led directly
on to the undermining public
services and increased
taxes as NO campaigners
had warned during the recent referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
Councillor Gino Kenny of South
Dublin Council said:
“The dramatic increase in charges for local public
services will be another
kick in the teeth for the
less well-off in society
who had already been hammered
with pay cuts, levies and
welfare cuts in the recent
budgets. This ECJ ruling
spells further disaster for working people and the less well-off
who have already been slaughtered with cuts and levies and
who now will be faced with dramatic increases in bin charges,
charges for public swimming and sports facilities and, of course,
the water charges the government plan to introduce.”
“The chickens have come home to roost on the decision
of the political
establishment to dragoon the Irish public into signing
up to neo-liberal EU treaties
such as Lisbon. We were pilloried for claiming that the EU
economic policies enshrined in Lisbon would lead to the
undermining of our public
services and higher taxes. Now the truth of what we said is being revealed and
the least well-off in our society will have to pay the price.
We have no idea where the ramifications of all this will
stop. If local authorities
are being forced to impose VAT on services they provide, then presumably this
will also be the case for any service provided by the state, where a case can
be made that competition rules should apply.”
ENDS
Sincere thanks to all those
who volunteered their time, showed their support in
the lead up to the elections and on Election Day!
Click on photo below for more images from
the Election Count day on 6 June 2009
Community
activists marched to the constituency office of
Minister for State John Curran who has responsibility
for the National Drugs Strategy and Community Affairs
on Monday, 19 October 2009.
Today's golden circle of bankers, developers and corporate criminal's have left an economic mess in their wake.
Working people are now being asked to pick up the tab
because of their insatiable greed.
The new income levies mean that every worker will have
to work 3 to 4 extra weeks a year to pay for the bankers
and speculators gambling.
The government is also
cutting the Christmas social welfare payment and the child
care supplement of €996 euro a year.
What we need is a fightback, look at what pensioner
power did when they reversed the medical card cuts.
Think what could be done
for social purposes and projects with the €7 billion
that was given to the banks.
International capitalism is in it's worst crisis since the
1930's.
As workers we have a choice: Lie down and take it,
or fight back.