I am grateful to my friend and mentor "Grandad" for the following incomplete list of the taxes we are all subject to in Ireland.

• Airline surcharge tax
• Airline Fuel Tax
• Airport Maintenance Tax
• Broadcasting Charge [tax]
• Building Permit Tax
• Capital Gains Tax
• Corporate Income Tax
• Death Duty Tax
• Dog Licence [tax]
• Domestic Oil Tax
• Driving Licence Tax
• Environmental Tax
• Fishing License Tax
• Food License Tax
• Goods and Services Tax
• Health Tax
• Income Tax
• Inheritance Tax
• Interest Tax
• Liquor Tax
• Luxury Taxes
• Marriage License Tax
• National Car Test 
• Personal Income Tax
• Petrol Tax
• Property Tax
• Prescription Drug Tax
• Recreational Vehicle Tax
• Retail Sales Tax
• Road Fund Licence [tax]
• Service Charge Tax
• Septic Tank Tax
• Stamp Duty [tax]
• Telephone Tax
• Tobacco Excise Duty [tax]
• Value Added Tax
• Vehicle License Registration Tax
• Vehicle Sales Tax
• Water Tax
• Workers Compensation Tax

Growing up here in the seventies and eighties it was a lot simpler. Central taxation was underwriting local Government and as a result, we paid for our water, street lighting, domestic waste disposal, street cleaning and roads among other things via income tax and VAT. Car tax came in after that and it was the first indication that senior Civil Servants were looking for ways to rip us off. Cue property and water taxes! We even pay our bin charges to private companies now. Traditionally when we bought our homes we paid all of the property tax up front in a lump sum called Stamp Duty. You paid for water in the subvention grants to local authorities who supplied it.

This begs the question, what do we pay our politicians and public representatives for? What is it that all those hundreds of civil servants do for us at such a high cost? The answer is truly amazing. Politicians repeatedly claim that do NOT create jobs nor are they supposed to. The 166 of them who collect in Dail Eireann from time to time maintain that they are elected to "MAKE LAWS." You didn't know that, did you? For a hundred grand a year plus the same again in expenses, these joker's sole purpose in life is to make more new laws. And if you look at the laws this current Government have made since entering office you will discover that most of them have to do with raiding your wallet ………. LEGALLY! Oh, and the Civil Servants do what the politicians tell them to do and nothing else.

It has become an infinite loop in fact. They introduce laws to give them more of your money so that they can bribe you to vote for them at election time and the three main parties have been doing just that for years. Even worse, they want you to understand that it is a public service to us. How's that for pure brazenness? 

You couldn't make it up.