Tax is the new solution to all our problems
FOR every problem there is a solution and in the thinking of the nation's politicians the answer to most of our problems is to dream up a new tax. That's how it looks at any rate and this tendency towards taxing isn't confined to the Government parties either. Indeed it seems to form the basis of the one cross- party source of consensus.
A prime example is provided by Fianna Fail's Health Spokesperson in the Seanad, Senator Marc MacSharry, who believes levying a new tax on off- licence alcohol sales would help reduce suicide rates.
The proposed new tax, which will be brought forward as a bill in the Seanad next month, would add 80c to the price of a bottle of wine, 25c to a can of lager and € 3 to a bottle of vodka. Such a tax would raise up to € 200 million a year which, under Senator MacSharry's proposal, would be used to fund suicide prevention measures.
The logic behind all this is that there is a link between alcohol abuse and suicide so it's appropriate that tax from alcohol sales would be used to combat suicide.
Senator MacSharry's Seanad colleague, Fine Gael Senator Dan Neville who is president of the Irish Association of Suicidology, has well founded reservations about the proposal but finds it ' laudable' nonetheless. Interestingly, South Kerry Independent Councillor Danny Healy Rae also sees a link between alcohol and suicide, but on somewhat different grounds. In Cllr Healy Rae's view, lonely single men in rural areas are at risk of suicide because ever more restrictive drink driving laws are keeping them out of the pub. Clearly it is a debate with legs, but Senator MacSharry hopes for cross party support and in these taxing times, he might well get it.
Meanwhile, Health Minister James Reilly wants to double the price of cigarettes by hiking up the Government's tax take. Minister Reilly believes this would have the very positive effect of reducing cigarette consumption and no doubt he too would plan to use all that tax money to help cover the cost of health services for smokers. Doubling the price of cigarettes would also make Ireland a Mecca for tobacco smugglers!
Smoking and drinking don't complete the list of the country's ills, of course. There's also the obesity ' epidemic' which is seriously impinging on people's health and costing the state a fortune in medical care. No problem - we can deal with that with another tax. The idea of a ' sugar tax' has been doing the rounds for some time now and will surely crystallise into a concrete proposal before long.
Of course, extra taxation takes more out of people's pockets and that's never popular but it helps when the Government can point out that it's all being done for the greater good of the people. It goes without saying that all and any such tax revenue would be ' ringfenced' to be spent on appropriate good causes - just like the Household Charge was to be ring- fenced for local authority services. The problem with ring fences is that they tend to fall down and the tax revenue quickly gets diverted to other worthy causes, like paying off our whopping bank debt.
It's the path to hell for taxpayers, paved as always with good intentions and it should leave us no doubt that, whatever the promises, the only certainties are debt and taxes.