Can anyone figure this one out?

damien_gill

I've been doing some pondering as of late (as always).

Anyway, my point is this. WHERE IS ALL THE MONEY FROM THE PLASTIC BAG LEVY GONE / GOIING?

By my calculations (very rough / extremely underestimated) if a Dunnes Stores has about 1000 customers a day and each of them buys one plastic bag @ 15cent that works out at
€150 a day
multiply that by the amount of days in a years it equals €53,400

Now at a gross underestimation (i think) if you figure out the amount of big shops in Ireland multiply that figure again by about 100 and what do you get?

€5,340,000

seeing has how I have not taken the time to claculate properly the actual amount made by the government levy (if anyone knows please let me know) I can only imagine how much revenue this generates.

My question is WHERE IS IT GOING / GONE or have Fianna Failure plundered it as usual?

Obviously I haven't got a notion where this moeny is going so if anyone can clarify for me I'd be most grateful.

PH01

Yeah, FF's Charlie McGravytrain has creamed off all that money from the plastic bag levy to pay for all those brown envelopes

But really I heard that this money goes directly into an environmental fund at some department other than the Dept. of Finance.

damien_gill

I know that there is an "enviromental fund" of sorts. but what is this money being used to do?

Boll*cks all is the answer in my opinion. of course that is assuming that any of the "enviroment fund" is actually being used as they said it would.

ha, ha YEAH RIGHT

Mr E

The whole point of the levy was to reduce the number of plastic bags being used (and thrown out).

Using your calculations, I think you'll find that out of 1000 Dunnes customers a day, less than 1% would actually buy a plastic bag.

- Dave.

Typedef

Irish people were consuming upwards of one billion plastic bags a year, the majority of which were going to landfill and were non-biodegradeable. That is why the levy was introduced.

Where that money goes is into the government's coffers right here. http://www.oasis.gov.ie/environment/plastic_bag_environmental_levy.html

Revenue generated from the Plastic Bag Environmental Levy will go into the new Environmental Fund. This fund will be used to support waste management, litter and other environmental initiatives.

I don't think the aim of the tax was to line 'brown envelopes', but rather to encourage people to use reusable as opposed to disposable plastic bags.

Hours of endless joy there I tell ya

damien_gill

All I know is anytime I'm in the shops I see LOADS of people with two or three plastic bags.

And I defo remember the government advertising campaign at the time ALL PROCEEDS FROM THE GOVERNMENT LEVY ON PLASTIC BAGS WILL BE PLACED IN AN EVIROMENTAL FUND - my arse it has.

Plus on another kinda related but not really note. How much do off licenses, confectioners and butchers make. They are not allowed to charge (or at least a levy doesn't have to payed on them particular items) but they still do

Typedef

Originally posted by damien_gill

And I defo remember the government advertising campaign at the time ALL PROCEEDS FROM THE GOVERNMENT LEVY ON PLASTIC BAGS WILL BE PLACED IN AN EVIROMENTAL FUND - my arse it has.

Hmm. You've lost the plot if you think the government is skimming from itself, seriously, do you have any evidence to prove that the money derived from the plastic bag levy is going anywhere else other then into the environmental fund?

At the very least if that proposition were proved to be true, the government would be liable for false advertising and could be sued.

damien_gill

no i've no evidence but given our current governments track record anythings possible.

if the money in this fund is being used our government would be making a song and dance about it.

But since the introduction of the levy they have kept fairly queit about the proceeds.

I personally find it a tad bit suspicious

Hyzepher

Basically a tax is a tax and goes into the coffers of the government. There is no rela way of finding out where actual money collected from the bag levy is going - use the motor tax example as a guidline.

The good thing is that a vast amount of plastic bag use has been removed from our lives - cleaning up the environment. Now regardless of the governments 'real' reasons for intoducing the levy - the result is a cleaner life for us all - a small price to pay.

Hyzepher

ReefBreak

Originally posted by damien_gill
Boll*cks all is the answer in my opinion. of course that is assuming that any of the "enviroment fund" is actually being used as they said it would.

ha, ha YEAH RIGHT

...

And I defo remember the government advertising campaign at the time ALL PROCEEDS FROM THE GOVERNMENT LEVY ON PLASTIC BAGS WILL BE PLACED IN AN EVIROMENTAL FUND - my arse it has.

I can't wait to read your election manifesto for the new party. With this kind of debating/arguing/ranting ("my arse FF are a good party!") you'll get your overall majority in no time.

Also might be a good idea to clean up your spelling (enviroment?), grammer and punctuation. No seriously, the electorate would be influenced by a leaflet lacking in this sort of stuff.

damien_gill

I'm quite looking forward to all of your opinions of the policies I did up as well.

Besides that point your right I am ranting about the levy. I've no probs in admitting that but what else is one supposed to think when one has tried to find info on it and come up empty handed?

as for my spelling we're all allowed typos from time to time albeit mine are a bit more frequent than most others

PH01

Originally posted by ReefBreak
I can't wait to read your election manifesto for the new party. With this kind of debating/arguing/ranting ("my arse FF are a good party!") you'll get your overall majority in no time.

Also might be a good idea to clean up your spelling (enviroment?), grammer and punctuation. No seriously, the electorate would be influenced by a leaflet lacking in this sort of stuff.

Damien, never mind that aul $hite from ReefBreak. The fact that you care enough about the politics of this country to make it better is an honorable pursuit.

And Reefbreak, so what about spelling, grammer and punctuation? It's not that important. What's important is that you communicate.

damien_gill

thanks for the support PH01 it does actually mean quite alot to me.

Seriously, thanks very much for sticking up for me.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

The Saint

When the hell are we going to see this manifesto?

damien_gill

the manifesto that I have is on my laptop. My laptop has been away getting fixed and is "due" back today.

Now whether or not the courier comes today is another effing story

The Saint

That was your excuse last week. Your a corrupt, dirty, money grabbing, lieing politician. Where are you based?

damien_gill

I'm based in Dublin 13 and my laptop is currently (if i'm to believe Iqon Technologies) winging it's way to me by courier as I type this very sentence.

The Saint

Liar, I call you LIAR!!!!!

damien_gill

Call me wot u want "sticks and stones and all that cr*p".

Sure you'll see them tomorrow (providing I get my laptop back) and we'll see who the liar is then

seamus

All taxes go to the same place. There is no distinction between environmental levies or motor levies or income tax.

Article 11 of Bunreacht na hEireann:

All revenues of the State from whatever source arising shall, subject to such exception as may be provided by law, form one fund, and shall be appropriated for the purposes and in the manner and subject to the charges and liabilities determined and imposed by law.

It's a ****e state of affairs, which I would like to see rectified. But I won't lose any sleep over it.

Meh

Originally posted by seamus
All taxes go to the same place. There is no distinction between environmental levies or motor levies or income tax.

All revenues of the State from whatever source arising shall, subject to such exception as may be provided by law, form one fund, and shall be appropriated for the purposes and in the manner and subject to the charges and liabilities determined and imposed by law.

I think the law which established the bag tax contained such an exception.

swiss

Originally posted by The Saint:

That was your excuse last week. Your a corrupt, dirty, money grabbing, lieing politician. Where are you based?

Liar, I call you LIAR!!!!!

I realise this may be sarcasm on your part, but cut it out. If you don't believe him, then express your doubt, but don't shout liar liar pants on fire! It's childish.

In regards to plastic tax: regardless of where the money goes I believe it is a very good initiative, for environmental reasons alone the dramatic drop in consumption of plastic bags represent good news. The only flip side is the loss of income to plastic companies, but I'm not going to shed too many tears over that.

Secondly, yes the money had been earmarked for environmental initiatives. Whether or not this is actually the case is another matter. If funding for such initiatives has increased commensurately with the revenue generated from plastic bags, then I would be content that the government has fulfilled it's obligation in this regard. I guess we'll have to check the expenditure figures, or else ask our local TD.

The Saint

Sorry, I didnt realise a sense of humour was not allowed anymore. I think it was quite obvious that I was taking the piss. Maybe some people need to lighten up. The person it was directed at realised I was joking.

damien_gill

yeah what The Saint said plus this "if ya can't take stick dont ever give it" just thought I'd add that in so the thread will go off on a bit of wild tangent like all the threads I start do.

Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me?

Typedef

Actually I've noticed, that you've gone from accusing the government of skimming funds from the plastic bag levy to professing how it is that all of your threads go onto wild tangents and how you have invented this thing called humour.

Well Kudos to you Mr Chaplin. Kudos.

damien_gill

a come on now Ted theres no way that I invented comedy ya big feckin eidget ya,

I still think there is some serious skimming of that fund going on I just cant find anything anywhere to confirm that I'm right or wrong for that matter

Typedef

Only a eejit could misspell eejit.

Anyway, if you can prove that the fund is being skimmed, I'll accept that, otherwise you are just spouting nonesense.

The latter perhaps?

The Saint

I dont know weather funds are being fiddled but Damien has a point that you cant actually find out if this is or is not the case.

damien_gill

Thanks Saint thats what I'm trying to get at.

If the money isn't being skimmed why can I not find any reference to this fund anymore? And believe me I have been looking for a few weeks now.

Thats wot leads me to believe there is something a bit suss going on here. The government are just a bit too quiet about that fund for my liking.

WHY THE SILENCE?

It's very suspicious to me so ya see it need not be nonsense. Altough it could very well be nonsense that I'm spouting.
PUT IT THIS WAY YOU CANT PROVE THAT IM WRONG CAN YOU?

Typedef

What are you talking about?

One can't just shout J'Accuse on a public forum.
Why? Because this isn't Television and here people can answer back and not simply accept trial by media as valid means of public enquirey.

So you made the assertion, now back it up, before you go asking me or (n) random people WHY THE SILENCE?

PUT IT THIS WAY YOU CANT PROVE THAT IM WRONG CAN YOU?

You can't prove I'm Cindy Crawford, that doesn't necessarily make it so though does it Ensign Crusher?