The Group will be independently chaired by Dr. Don Thornhill who has
relevant expertise in this area. The Group will be comprised of senior
officials from the Departments of Environment, Community and Local
Government; Finance; Public Expenditure and Reform; Communications,
Energy and Natural Resources, Social Protection and the Revenue
Commissioners. The Group may also call on technical expertise from
the Central Statistics Office, An Post/Ordnance Survey Ireland,
Property Registration Authority, the Valuation Office, the Property
Services Regulatory Authority and other individuals, organisations and
agencies as it may deem to be of assistance in carrying out its work.

The Minister welcomed the fact that over 66,000 residential properties
have registered for the Household Charge, equating to €6.6 million. ‘I
would like to acknowledge and thank those people who have registered
their properties and paid the Household Charge at this early stage.
The large numbers of people paying the charge is a clear indication of
compliance with the legislation and the acceptance that it is
necessary to fund vital local services in our communities.’

The €100 will go towards paying for essential local services: public
parks; libraries; open spaces and leisure amenities; planning and
development; fire and emergency services; maintenance and cleaning of
streets and street lighting.These services are integral to the quality
of life in local communities.

The terms of reference for the expert Inter-Departmental Group are:

To consider the design of a property tax to be approved by Government
to replace the Household Charge and that is equitable and is informed
by previous work and international experience.

The residential property tax is to:

· Meet the immediate financial requirements of the EU/IMF programme;

· Provide a stable funding base for the local authority sector
in the medium and longer terms incorporating an appropriate element of
local authority responsibility subject to any national parameters;

· Ensure the maximum degree of fairness between and across
both urban and rural areas

· Be collected centrally by the most cost efficient and effective means;

· Facilitate easy and/or phased payments by households;

· Be easily determined (e.g. on a self assessment basis), and
having regard to the information currently available (or to be made
available through registrations for the household charge) on
residential property and/or house ownership details;

The Group is also to consider the appropriate arrangements for:

A robust audit function; and
Strong enforcement and penalty provisions for non-compliance.

The Group will be assisted principally by a secretariat in the
Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and
should report to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local
Government by end-April 2012.

I would like to ask if Dublin bus take 83’s off service to be
redeployed if they are short of buses elsewhere in the city? Also I
would like to get a reply to this question in addition to replies to
the concerns I have raised below re data discrepancy from Dublin bus
between their Dublin bus app and text service.

Eugene Donohoe 21 jan 2012

And 20 jan 2012

I wish to endorse what Geraldine has said here below. On many
occasions I use the Dublin Bus app on my phone. Frequently the bus
which should be on the mid-hour slot is missing from the data (there
are three buses listed in the evening in the hour). So you don’t know
if you go out whether or not it will come and at the time it should
come according to the different data one gets from Dublin Bus text!
Its quite amazing that you can get different bus times data on two
different platforms (text and phone app) from the same company!! This
would be funny if it was a movie but when you’re trying to plan your
life and get to and fro it’s a nightmare. The RTPI signs work
sometimes but nowhere near as to be a quality reliable service. I used
to walk around to the Met office to have a choice of buses but now
that Dublin bus has re-routed the 13 and scrapped the 19, there is no
alternative to the unpredictable 83 that we are all stuck with as the
only means of public transport to get into town on, from Finglas east
through to the Botanic Gardens. It’s a hell of a walk to have some
choice! I too have had the same experience as Geraldine, walking along
in the belief that the 83 is some time away only to have it sail past
me between stops.

Eugene Donohoe

Dear Anne,

I went to the RTPI sign at the Met Office at 5.15pm on
Tues. The Information was an 83 in 15 minutes so I decided to walk the
the “Super Route” No,9 on Botanic Rd. 7 minutes later the 83 lunged
past me at the corner. This has happened many times. Everyone in
Glasnevin knows that your sign does not work. After you fixed it last
time and decided that it was 92% accurate on that day I question your
ability to work out percentages and accuracy of these very expensive
contraptions. Last Fri all of these were out of order. Each day Dublin
Bus has a different reason for the bus being late or overcrowded or
suddenly disappearing. People of Glasnevin do not enjoy a fast
afficient bus service and you have played a large part in the
destruction of our infrastructure. At our meeting in July we outlined
the consequences of scrapping the 19. These are very serious for
residents of Glasnevin. Please work out a compensatory plan to make
amends for all the misery and hardship you have caused while
pocketting a large salary.

Yours truly,

Geraldine Gough 19 jan 2012