Thursday, July 17, 2008

Screwed Again.

Yep, like the 'green tax' on my car and probably your car, like everything else in this country of ours, they say, we pay.

"THOUSANDS of commuters will have to fork out up to €500 a year more just to get to work from September.

Commuters and shoppers will be left counting the cost after CIE confirmed controversial plans for new 'park and ride' charges at dozens of railway stations.

The semi-state company has signed a contract with a private parking control and clamping company to introduce 'pay and display' parking at 37 stations on the greater Dublin commuter network, the Irish Independent can reveal.

Commuters from as far away as Longford and Gorey will be hit with parking charges of €2 a day, where previously they could park for free.

Opposition TDs and transport lobby groups last night branded the new charges as "unacceptable".


Right? Are we following this> The government, bless 'em want us to use public transport, better for de environment, right? Better for de green house gasses, get us out of our cars and blah blah chee de rah... But NOW oh yes NOW they're going to charge you to park your bloody car WHILE you use Public transport.

The toll goes up on the M50 next week. We'll complain, but we'll pay. Same as my car tax, I'll whinge and I'll bitch about it here, but I'll pay.

How long before the price goes up do we think?

Our government hates us, but we let them abuse us

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23 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Get with the neo-con programme, Missus. I really don't know why you're surprised.

ESB's going up 17%. Pretty soon we'll be paying for tap water. Paying to walk in the woods can't be far off. Paying to park at the seaside has been brought in in a few places already.

10:30 a.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

I might just tell the bank to cut them a cheque at the beginning of the year to cover 'expenses'.

10:37 a.m.  
Blogger galwaywegian said...

It'll son be like the good old days when we were "poor but happy". Can't wait!

12:05 p.m.  
Blogger Manuel said...

green taxes - good

bend over and take it taxes wrapped up as green taxes - bad

12:23 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Oh that poor and happy bollocks, allow me to quote that great sage, Cher, on this..
'I've been poor, I've been rich, rich is better.'
Quite.

Manuel, it's black mail pure and simple. I have a real problem with it, I'm gong to write to my local handshaking gruning politician and ask for some kind of explanation.

12:40 p.m.  
Blogger Unknown said...

Minishter Dempsey's been on the radio saying it's a good thing. His logic being that it'll still be cheaper than driving your car all that distance. He might have added that it's a way for IrishRail to increase revenue without having to put it on the ticket price - which would be factored into inflation statistics.

God help the long distance commuters. They bought at a high price, where they could just afford it far, far away. Fuel has gone through the roof. Maybe 20% is gone off the value of their house, the cost of going to work is going up, and redundancy may be on the cards.

1:09 p.m.  
Blogger Megan McGurk said...

Who owns the parking lots?

1:09 p.m.  
Blogger Cate said...

I got a bill from Chorus NTL during the week. Apparently the cost of NOT going direct debit has gone up by 1 euro to 3 euro. How the fuck do they justify that one. They charge you 3 euro for making the transfer yourself?? Double Screwed again!

1:53 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

FMC - am I reading you correctly? 2 euros a DAY for parking? Where is this Eutopia? We pay this per hour for station parking. The supermarket car park at our local shopping centre charges £1.50 for the first hour and £1 per hour or any part of an hour thereafter. If I go into Central London on a weekday, I have to pay £8 congestions charge, plus approx £12 - 16 parking charges for a couple of hours in one of the local NCP car parks. You guys are lucky, lucky, lucky!

2:22 p.m.  
Blogger James McInerney said...

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. "They've paved paradise and put up a parking lot".

Sigh. For shame.

3:22 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Medbh asks a really good question - who owns the parking lots? If some private firm is going to be making money at the public's expense that ought to be a reason for further independent scrutiny of this.

5:05 p.m.  
Blogger Jo said...

How is charging for park and ride green? Stupid!!

8:44 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Joni Mitchell aside the WHOLE point of parking lots was 'park here catch a train' not park here, pay, catch a train or be clamped'

10:27 p.m.  
Blogger Jo said...

The point of park and ride ws ENCOURAGING people not to drive into the city. Not DISCOURAGING them. Gah!

10:42 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

...oh nintey-nine problems but the bitch ain't one,, if you havin' girl problems I feel bad for ya son, I got ninety-nine problems but that transport ain't one....

12:08 a.m.  
Blogger John Mc said...

By and large I'm agin' being nickel and dimed, but Shebah is right. This is a tiny charge compared to any other country - and Medbh's question is a good one - who owns the parking lots? If Irish Rail do, they are entitled to charge. It's their parking lot. Why do we expect these facilities for free? Instead of griping over parking charges we should all be bitching about the entire system that forces us to live long distances from where we work - or if that isn't the case taking a long long at why we need to live far away from work, and dedicate large amounts of our time to commuting.
Anyhow I'm betting that a look through the tax code will probably reveal that these charges are tax deductible. Any accountants out there?
FMC as a self employed personage you most likely have an accountant, given said professional a bell...
And for a final rant to Conans point - we should be paying for clean water, a rare and precious resource (yes I know water is plentiful in Ireland, but I'm talking about potable water). We might think thrice about wasting something that half the worlds population would go to war over.

3:18 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's all part of a cunning plan to get all the skangers back to Dublin.
I really hope it works, cos I'm fed up to my hole listening to "de bleeeden accents" down here ...fuck off back to Tallaght

9:53 a.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Down where?

10:54 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Have just looked up Skangar on google - it says it is an Irish version of Chav. Har! Anonymous, don't know what you are on about - I have been shopping recently in the Square in Tallaght and thought it had some very good shops, some terrific hotels and the people were lovely - not a chav in sight - in fact mostly Scandinavians and East Europeans - and the Dublin accent is simply divine, very friendly and sexy.

10:57 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Have a look at a Fair City and tell me about the accent. Una...etc...it's TERRIBLE

1:19 p.m.  
Blogger Stellanova said...

Have just looked up Skangar on google - it says it is an Irish version of Chav. Har!

Yeah, laughing at poor people is really funny!

3:05 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Stellanova - chavs are not poor people - they wear all the latest Burberry designer gear and the funkiest £150 trainers. I'd love to be so poor that all I could afford was Burberry!

10:29 a.m.  
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1:02 a.m.  

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