Green Party Bully SME and YOU

10:07 AM / Posted by David Hartery /

So Senator Dan Boyle, Eamon Ryan and the rest of the Green Party economic incompetents club have decided to keep pummeling SME like a small fat kid at lunch time. First they decided to implement a 5% PSO levy (more on that later) but now they have decided to add another ridiculous SME and small household targeting charge – the new system for commercial vehicle road tax.

In a climate where business is under more threat than it has been in a decade, they want to increase costs for small business owners, firstly to use electricity and secondly to own a van. They’re attempting to sell this as progressive Green policy. So if I use a van for personal use I either have to pay a fee or buy another vehicle. I have 2 problems with this. Firstly, it’s my damn property. If I want to drive it to the shops, that should be my prerogative. It’s not a loophole in the commercial tax system, it’s a recognition that commercial vehicles have a role outside of merely being workhorses. What they're doing is closing a “loophole” by ignoring a fact of life.

Secondly, how is this a Green policy? If it forces people to buy a car for normal use it achieves nothing other than more CO2 spewing tin cans wandering our streets, if people decide to pay the fine, it is more of an incentive to use the van as much as possible to get your moneys worth. There’s no logic here.

Speaking of lacking in logic, Eamon Ryan is back from his holliers today and jumped straight into dealing with the reporting of the 5% PSO levy. In their infinite wisdom, the Green Party spindoctors are emphasizing that this is not being introduced by the Green Party. It’s been around for years, we’re told, it’s just that that it was set to 0%. Well, Mr Ryan, just because it’s not new, doesn’t mean it’s not STUPID. Apparently the whole thing is caused by the energy companies not having enough revenue to cover their costs. Know what happens in normal industries when their revenues are too low? They make a loss. Christ, we’re pissing 33 billion into Anglo, surely the Government can come up with a mechanism of finding the money from somewhere else, without hitting households and SME owners AGAIN. Their taxation policy is cowardly and lacking in imagination. What will they do when they can’t hit the soft targets anymore? When they have dripped pensioners, public servants, small business owners and households dry? Will they finally man the fuck up and start coming up with a coherent policy to tackle the massive central government inefficiencies? Contemplate increasing corporation tax? Stop throwing money at the black holes that are Irish Nationwide and Anglo Irish Bank? I called them bullies at the start of this blog and I stand by that. But I wish they would stop taking my lunch money.

Mr Ryan had this to say to the Irish Independent

“With the recent introduction of the carbon tax and the likelihood of water charges on the horizon, the minister said he was concerned there was a perception that the Greens were seen as a party of tax.”

No, I think it’s safe to say, they’re seen as a party of morons.

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