Local authorities are cash starved and are forced to generate funds through new local charges which impose unrealistic stealth taxes on residents. To paraphrase Ian Duncan Smith, being a taxpayer has become the hardest job in Ireland. Given the ever increasing burden on taxpayers, whose rapidly emptying purses are paying for the mismanagement of the Government, Fine Gael, which is opposed to the Government policy of closing down vital accident and emergency departments in local hospitals, believes it is imperative the people do not suffer the ill-effects of poorly devised policy.