Sir, – The final count on the household tax is in last Tuesday’s post. The majority of Irish households voted “No”. This was a referendum, not officially sanctioned by government but a referendum all the same, held and decisively decided by the people of Ireland.

It was a referendum because the people decided to make it so, to take the household tax issue, consider it, debate it and decide it among themselves. And it was appropriate that it be decided in this way because government had crossed a line. It had stepped over the threshold of our homes.

If Minister Phil Hogan is struggling to understand what happened, he need only ask Enda Kenny, who told the Dáil 15 years ago, “It is morally wrong, unjust and unfair to tax a person’s home.” There is a central principle in natural law which is fundamental to the Irish Constitution that every person has an innate dignity and that government exists to guarantee that dignity.

In order to live our dignity, we must have the things that are essential to our human nature. In the physical realm this means that we must have air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat, clothing to cover ourselves and shelter from the elements. Similarly in the intellectual, spiritual and emotional sphere our human nature has essential requirements. It is these essentials that are the basis of human rights, or to state it simply we have an inalienable right to whatever is necessary to maintain human life and dignity.

It is in light of this principle that Mr Kenny was correct. It is morally wrong to tax what is essential to the human person. No one can legitimately take away a human right or potentially deny it through taxation. If a government can tax something essential it can take it away if the tax is not paid. This is an absurdity and an injustice.

Until the current Government came to power, the principle that what is essential is a right and therefore beyond tax has been for the most part respected.

In my opinion, it is this principle of human dignity rather than any other reason suggested by Minister Hogan that accounts for the high “No” vote. Government should be ashamed that it used and is still using fear tactics to force people to betray what they know deep in their hearts is right. I know some people who paid the tax, but no one who felt good about it.

We as a people have a deep and sad memory of another government, a foreign government, that transgressed this principle as they trampled the human dignity of our ancestors. This regime also imposed a levy on homes by taxing roofs and windows. In rural areas, we can still see the crumbling remains of roofless and almost windowless houses.

We have had our referendum. The vote was a resounding “No”. It is time to accede to the people’s judgment and return the money that has been paid to date. If there is to be a house tax it must exempt primary and therefore essential residences and be confined to extra dwellings.

Government must not be tempted, as has happened in the past, to ignore the people’s “No” and go back to them with fear and spin to force a different answer.

KATHY SINNOTT,

Ballinabearna,

Ballinhassig,

Co Cork.