Wanton Waste

national | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis

Monday January 17, 2005 21:26

by John McDermott - removefiannafail

www.jmcd444 at yahoo dot com

Spain

Profiteers have their fingers in the public till-Bord Failte

Bertie and ordinary citizens pay for the massive expenditure to enrich Ireland,s fat cat hoteliers and golf course owners such as Oliver Barry(a Cork based Fianna Fail "soldier of destiny" whose name is linked to the corruption tribunals)

Last week saw a the Fianna Fail press release, attempting to justify the fact that that Bord Failte(Tourism Ireland) a government sponsored entity;set up by the state and manned and managed by wealthy hoteliers,is to spend a whopping 200 million Euros in 2005 advertising the merits of Irelands golf courses and Dublin,s temple bar pubs where cross channel visitors from John Bull,s country have popularised drunken stag party weekends to the enrichment of both the publicans and the exchequer-to some degree.

This 200 million in publicity money is part of the booty that is painfully extracted from citizens of Ireland, in the multiplicity of stealth taxes.rubbish bin taxes etc, which are descending upon the population to compensate the state for their new largesse to multinational( and also now Irish)companies, due to the E.E.C. insisting on a single tax structure for all companies operating in the country.
It was stated in the government press release, that "the exchequer will benefit by 650 million Euros this year as a result of tourism"
However if golf course fees and publicans profits on drink actually bring in this bonanza to the government,does it really justify this massive waste of ordinary taxpayers money to enrich fatcat hoteliers.? Why do they not pay their own advertising bills after all such expenses would presumably be tax deductible from their annual profits and tax liability.
The truth -if it be known-is that Bertie gets nothing like this money from taxing hoteliers.If the subsidies they receive for building swimming pools and gymnasiums etc,were taken into account,the reality is that the ordinary citizen is being fleeced here,as in so many other sectors of our fat-cat profiteer orientated economy.
If Bertie Ahern is a socialist,then Mary Harney must be a Marxist-Leninist and I am probably Santa Claus.!
www.soldiersofdestiny.org.