Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I have to confess that, as one of the founder members of the national boycott campaign, I never expected to see a 73% non-payment rate. The anti-poll tax campaign which, by the way, ended the political career of the Iron Lady, Maggie Thatcher, never achieved a 73% non-payment rate or anything like it. If one was to find a fitting historical comparison, one might need to flick through the pages of maritime history. On 14-15 April 1912 the unsinkable Titaniccrashed into an iceberg in the icy waters of the north Atlantic, just as the Government's good ship water charges has crashed into the iceberg of mass non-payment. The history books record what happened when Titanicreached tipping point two hours and 40 minutes later. Her rate of sinking increased suddenly as her forward deck tipped under the water and the sea poured in through open hatches and grates.

I suggest that 73% non-payment is not far off a tipping point.

Is the Government seriously going to try to use European Commission threats to save a sinking ship? Is it seriously going to try to use a rigged commission to save a sinking ship? Or, is the Government going to recognise reality and give this hated charge a decent burial?

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