CLARE DALY HAS said that the upcoming property tax could be a ‘game changer’ which may cause serious problems for the Government.

The Dublin North TD told a meeting that the Government is weak and could break if put under pressure. “Labour, they’re nearly dropping like flies, [once] a week it’s nearly man overboard,” she said.

Speaking at an event organised by the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes in Dundalk, Daly said that the Government’s ‘misnamed’ and ‘draconian’ property tax was a very serious assault on the living standards of ordinary people.

She said that the Government is trying to “bully and browbeat” people into paying the tax, and told the meeting that despite suggestions to the contrary, Ireland is not the only country in Europe which doesn’t pay property taxes.

“In actual fact we are probably the people in Europe who have paid the most in terms of stamp duty, in terms of development levies and in terms of the highest indirect taxation in Europe,” she said.

We have already paid. [People are] not interested in paying twice or three times in order to pay the debts of bankers and speculators because of this Government’s unwillingness to tax the wealthy in Irish society.

She called on people to protest in mid-April when “Angela and the boys” come to Ireland.

“[When] Enda and the lads are going around, how great they are, we want the presidents of Europe to see the real people of Ireland,” she said. “We want them to see the price [of] the pain they are inflicting on people.”

Daly said that the property tax was going to be a ‘game changer’ in terms of people’s attitude towards the Government.

“It’s going to be a step too far for people,” she said. “Already half the citizens in this state have less than €50 a month after meeting their essential repayment for their bills.”

Trade unions are a “bitter disappointment”

Daly also criticised the lack of response from the trade unions in Ireland, saying they were a “bitter disappointment.”

“There is no doubt that if these people were worth their salt, all they’d have to do was organise a dispute in Revenue [and] say [their] members are not deducting or taking that money from anybody’s pay packet,” she said.

“Sadly, [the trade unions] haven’t chosen to do that. They’re on the side of the establishment, they’re not representing their members.”

Also speaking at the event, Joan Collins TD said the property tax legislation had been drafted in a way which makes it very difficult for people not to pay and claimed that Ireland was now an “economic dictatorship.”

“You can see the hands of activists in this legislation. You can see the hands of Gilmore, Rabbite, Howlin,” she said. “People that would have fought against these taxes over the years.”

“You can see their hands in this legislation. It tries to cover all angles so that people will find it very difficult to resist,” Ms Collins said.

Clare Daly speaking last night (Photo: Christopher McKinley)

New political party

Daly also refused to deny outright that she is forming a new political party with Joan Collins saying “[It's] been our desire to see the United Left develop.”

When asked if that would mean a new party separate to the United Left Alliance with both TDs as the founders she replied “What do mean by new party as such?”

“We want to work to develop the idea of a broad left alternative,” she said. “Which was really [why] the United Left Alliance came together.”

“The experience has been that maybe the radical left groups have tended to try and concentrate on building their own forces rather than building the bigger project. So we think the bigger project needs to be built.”

“We do want to register the banner of the United Left and go out and build it in the way that it was supposed to be built when the alliance got together at the last election,” she said.

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