Corporation Tax

Multinational corporations operating in Ireland famously pay low-to-no taxes. Meanwhile, we Irish citizens have to pay many taxes - PAYE, PRSI, USC, water charges, etc, etc.

I say that all multinationals operating in Ireland should and must be made to pay their fair share. They should pay the full 12.5% corporation tax - which is already one of the lowest in the world. If they feel they have overpaid they can then go through the revenue appeals process, like all other taxpayers in Ireland.

Strict enforcement of this would bring more money into government coffers and allow the tax burden on the working poor of Ireland to be reduced. Are these companies privileged and untouchable guests in our country or should they be paying their fair share?

Wasting Treated Drinking Water

People in cities and towns across Ireland are not aware that treated drinkingwater is piped to every field in Ireland for water troughs for farm animals, as it's illegal under EU law to give animals going for human consumption non-treated river or stream water.

What does Larry Goodman, or any of the large herd owners, actually pay for treated water for over 3.5 million cattle per day? Very, very little is the answer!

We have Intel and the Pharma industries using vast amounts of treated water - which they distil anyway before use in their factories. Surely they can take what they need, untreated, from rivers rather than using billions of litres of drinking water, of which we are in so short supply.

I cannot understand why Paul Murphy is going through these court cases regarding Joan Burton protests when it will transpire that Gardai attempted to arrest him in front of Joan Burton’s car. It is a fact he was stripped, losing his shoe, coat, jumper and shirt in the process by arresting Gardai, who only backed down when it was pointed out he was a sitting TD! For more, watch this

Planning Corruption

We all saw the county councillors recently asking for cash bribes on Primetime, but there was no mention of the senior executives of the County Councils, without whose help the County Councillors could not achieve anything.

County Councillors and TDs should have no involvment in the planning process at any level. This would herald the end of houses being built on flood plains, apartment blocks without adequate fire escapes and the ubiquitous ghost estates. A professional, independent body should oversee all planning decisions, bringing an end to planning corruption.

The Government wants to set up a new planning regulatory body, but we already have one - An Bord Pleanála. The key issue is that senior executives of county councils regularly ignore the directions and enforcements of An Bord Pleanála. This means people are expected to fight through the court system at great expense to get planning appeal rulings correctly enforced.

The proposed new planning regulator is simply a new name for An Bord Pleanála, the idea being that if we change the name, we cover up the sins of the past. Instead of this, we need to remove senior executives and anyone other than planners from the planning process - this way it is clear who has responsibility for projects from start to finish, which will mean less corruption and more accountability.