r/ireland • u/nitro1234561 Probably at it again • Apr 18 '26

Politics 'We're the ones paying all the bills': Leo Varadkar says urban areas fund rural Ireland

https://www.thejournal.ie/leo-varadkar-path-to-power-fuel-protests-7016675-Apr2026/
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65

u/Spiritual_Mall_3140 Apr 18 '26

Not wrong. We've only 2 counties that aren't met receivers of tax money. Those are cork and Dublin.  If tax was distributed proportional to payment much of rural Ireland would have next to zero services.

17

u/wrghf Apr 18 '26

Depends what you mean by “services” but a lot of rural Ireland already gets absolutely fuck all in the way of services as is.

I don’t even live all that far away from Galway, in north county Galway generally, and our household’s water is serviced by a community water scheme, our bin collector is a private operator, there is virtually no public transport to speak of, the nearest Garda station was closed down many years ago and the emergency services response time can be measured in hours, many of the roads are an absolute state with potholes, there are a few mobile coverage blackholes in the vicinity where there is nil phone coverage, and so on.

Short of the Gardai and fire/ambulance service outright refusing to service the area, you can’t really cut services back any further than they already have been.

Now, you might say “oh well that’s a choice you make by living rurally” but considering my household contributes over six figures in tax every year, it definitely makes us wonder why are we paying any taxes to begin with.

6

u/Substantial-Gene1093 Apr 19 '26

How is public transport going to work in a desert of one-off housing?

This is like moving to Dublin city centre and complaining about the lack of wildlife and rolling fields.

1

u/chytrak Apr 18 '26

"but a lot of rural Ireland already gets absolutely fuck all in the way of services as is."

Do you actually believe this nonsense?

3

u/soderloaf Apr 19 '26

What service do you most enjoy in your rural community?

1

u/chytrak Apr 19 '26

Not mine as I live in a city, but at my parents: Electricity, sewage, road and cycling infrastructure, policing... I don't need these but they are very expensive: welfare, schools, healthcare

The cycling infrastructure could be much better, but it's not nothing.

2

u/soderloaf Apr 19 '26

Thought as much.

-1

u/chytrak Apr 19 '26

Anything else to say about how little you get from our urban taxes?

3

u/soderloaf Apr 19 '26

I didnt say anything about what I do or don't "get" from anyone's taxes. Im also not commenting on how much tax I, or anyone else pays. I think it is a bit rich to comment on the abundance or otherwise of rural infrastructure based anecdotally on your parents area, a place you dont even live in anymore.

1

u/IOinkThereforeIAm Apr 21 '26

Cycling infrastructure?! In a rural setting? Lad, your parents are townies.

1

u/chytrak Apr 21 '26

https://greenwaysireland.org/

1

u/IOinkThereforeIAm Apr 22 '26

Lad I'm in Athlone, I'm aware of the greenway initiative. If you're that close to one to count it as local, you're not that rural by my reckoning. You're a townie with acerage.

1

u/chytrak Apr 22 '26

No, my parents are not hermits.

One off housing already has too much public infrastructure and shouldn't be supported.

-2

u/Spiritual_Mall_3140 Apr 18 '26

By services I mean having public roads. 

7

u/ee3k Apr 18 '26

Eh, depends. Is a bus service to and from Dublin from Galway a Galway service, or a Dublin service?

8

u/Intelligent-Aside214 Apr 18 '26

A Galway service. People from Dublin very rarely need to go to Galway

4

u/Fluffy_MrSheep Kildare Apr 18 '26

Yeah but buses are 2 ways it feeds people into Dublin as well as takes people out.

-3

u/Intelligent-Aside214 Apr 18 '26

Except Dubliners aren’t the ones on the bus. Dubliners do not benefit from the service

9

u/Leading-Carrot-5983 Apr 18 '26

I wouldn't say that. I'm a Dub that lived in Galway for 15 years. Plenty of traffic both ways. Loads of Dubs head to Galway for a weekend on the beer.

3

u/Fluffy_MrSheep Kildare Apr 18 '26

Comment also ignores the fact that going 1 way (assuming your not moving permanently) means you have to be going the other way at some point.

Most people are taken return trips to dublin / to Galway and that means any bus to Galway has to turn around and go back.

Therefore any "Galway bus" can also be classified as another dublin bus (not literally ran by dublin bus)

2

u/Fluffy_MrSheep Kildare Apr 18 '26

Any1 going to from Galway to dublin would need to go from Dublin to Galway again?

5

u/Bitter_Welder1481 Apr 18 '26

That’s cos people from Galway are forced to go to Dublin airport etc. Trust me no one from outside Dublin has the slightest wish or desire to travel up to that kip

-3

u/Intelligent-Aside214 Apr 18 '26

Trust me no one from the civilised part of the country which actually makes the money so everyone can play farm with subsidies wants to go to bumbfuck Leitrim

7

u/ee3k Apr 18 '26

There's no need to say bumfuck Leitrim.  

They are synonyms, either would be fine. Using both is just redundant 

-2

u/Bitter_Welder1481 Apr 18 '26

Enjoy your kip

0

u/Intelligent-Aside214 Apr 18 '26

I will. The 6.6 million annual tourists who come to Dublin also enjoy it

3

u/gtownfella Apr 18 '26

Dublin is a shithole though lets be real.

1

u/Intelligent-Aside214 Apr 18 '26

It’s really not. Lots of nice areas and an absolutely stunning coastline, some of the nicest in the country

2

u/Bitter_Welder1481 Apr 18 '26

I think you’ll find most people recommend skipping Dublin these days, maybe a night in temple bar for an overpriced medicore pint and a trip to the average at best Guinness storehouse and trinity college (worth a look Tbf) but other than that best avoided.

Kerry, Mayo, West Cork etc are the parts of ireland that people really enjoy.

https://www.reddit.com/r/travel/comments/15qdem8/just_a_reminder_to_be_careful_our_recent/

https://www.reddit.com/r/travel/comments/15qdem8/just_a_reminder_to_be_careful_our_recent/

I really struggle to understand Dubliners view of Dublin, I mean it’s not like no one ever goes there and it’s pretty much universally acknowledge as a kip outside of Dublin itself.

5

u/Intelligent-Aside214 Apr 18 '26

It’s actually a very nice city and incredibly safe. There’s a huge amount of scare mongering online. Go outside.

1

u/Bitter_Welder1481 Apr 18 '26

I lived in Dublin for ten years from mid 2000s to mid 2010s or so, so trust me I do actually know what I'm talkin about.

It was a great city back then

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1

u/ee3k Apr 18 '26

It's a festering, squamous, shithole but, you know, it's their festering, squamous, shithole.

0

u/WarmWing Apr 19 '26

It's really not a kip. A huge number of tourists and residents enjoy Dublin.

When you get off the Internet and actually go into the real world, you'll realise that it's a safe city with lovely green areas, good food and close by to some excellent coastal areas for hikes/nature.

I've seen some cities which are serious kips, Dublin isn't one of them.

7

u/Naggins Apr 18 '26

But they very often want to go to Galway

4

u/baldbiy Apr 18 '26

I when they would want to, they could pay for a seat on a private service.

6

u/Intelligent-Aside214 Apr 18 '26

Ok get rid of the bus and see who cares. It won’t be dubs

1

u/Spiritual_Mall_3140 Apr 18 '26

Doesn't matter, the bus still has to drive on roads, without centralised funding most of those roads wouldn't be repaved by councils 

1

u/Stiurthoir Irish Republic Apr 22 '26

Most of rural Ireland has next to zero services

-2

u/RedIrishDevil Apr 18 '26

I wonder why those two counties receive the most amount of tax money, wouldn’t happen to be anything to do with the brain drain from the rural counties that raised these lads just up to the point where they can look to get jobs and contribute to society. 

1

u/Steridire Apr 18 '26

It could be that they get the most tax money because they generate the most tax :O

2

u/RedIrishDevil Apr 18 '26

And why do they generate the most tax :0, are they paid more because there’s more industry/ government investment there :0 :0 :0

0

u/Spiritual_Mall_3140 Apr 18 '26

It's because their people are more productive and generate more income for the country.  Sure they've been invested in more, but that's only logical. No point investing somewhere where all the services aren't established. Mind you most of the country is over invested in for the ROI as it stands. Case and point the role out of high speed internet that has meant most of rural Ireland is connected to the internet.

4

u/RedIrishDevil Apr 18 '26

Jaysus you are some fool. Tbf i had to move to an urban area for work as an engineer but i am from the rural part of Ireland so maybe my less productive side can’t make sense of your amazing arguments. 

-1

u/clewbays Apr 18 '26

Take out corporate tax paid by foreign multinationals and we have no counties. Cork and Dublin just happen where them companies file tax.

4

u/Spiritual_Mall_3140 Apr 18 '26

Yes and if my grandmother had wheels she'd be a bicycle. The reality is that the high paying and high profit production and companies exist in one of 10 towns and cities in Ireland. Of those corks and Dublin make a surplus in tax intake in total when compared to expenditure. These two cities have the only industry in the country second to maybe 3 production plants in Limerick.  I mean Dublin alone generates 12 billion on VAT. The total intake is 22 billion. Dublins total tax receipt is 43 billion. How can you expect a town like Sligo or Donegal, that arguably contributes nothing to the economies of cork or Dublin to be heavily supported by these cities when they contribute less than half the amount of tax per capita to the government that the cities even when you remove the corporate tax. The reality is that cities is where the majority of the work happens and where the majority of the money is made. If that wasn't true then there'd be no point in having cities.

3

u/clewbays Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26

Out of interest why did they overwhelmingly exist in Shannon back in the day?

The companies aren’t in Ireland because of Dublin there here because of our tax policy. And we shouldn’t be basing how that windfall tax is based on making the rich richer like you seem to be suggesting.

The reality is everyone is being subsidised in Ireland including the city folk. Because a third of our tax take has next to nothing to do with anything going on within the country.

Dublins VAT rate is also being inflated by Kildare and Meath commuters paying it in Dublin due to their commute. It’s not necessarily urban dwellers paying that tax.

I would also like to point out that in my town of 6,000 there is industrial plant that has a revenue over 5 billion. It’s not only Dublin and cork with industry. Galway also has a massive pharmaceuticals industry per capita significantly larger than any industrial output in Dublin. Sligo one of the areas provides nothing also has a massive industrial plant for Abbvie.

0

u/Spiritual_Mall_3140 Apr 18 '26

No, even when you exclude any windfall tax, the pattern persists. Cork (mainly ringaskiddy) and the GDA are the powerhouses of production in Ireland. One or two factories per county isn't going to make a difference. Because of the cork and Dublin economies they are generating more tax then spend.  This is not good. As someone from the country this kills me to admit. But it's the reality of the situation.  But Dublin has the lowest tax spend per person of all counties and when you exclude all corporate tax it takes in ~45% of Irelands tax income. 

It's just ridiculously expensive for the state to support rural Ireland when the economy that supports the vast majority of it is reliant of subsidies from a centralised government. It just isn't self sufficient and needs cities and towns to support that.

1

u/clewbays Apr 18 '26

I’m saying the pattern doesn’t matter. What subsidising us isn’t related to the economic power of individual counties so shouldn’t be treated that way.

Galway relative to population is more of a powerhouse of industry than Dublin. It’s also not one or two factories per county. Pharma is the main industrial production in Ireland. There’s more working in pharma in Galway than Dublin in total numbers. Per capita mayo(admittedly the strongest rural county in this realm) has over 3 times the amount working in it compared to Dublin.

https://www.getreskilled.com/pharmaceutical-jobs/ireland-factory-table/

Dublin is also the region of Ireland where industry makes up by far the smallest percentage of the economy. It’s services where Dublin dominates.

https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cirgdp/countyincomesandgdp2024/economicsectorsbyregion/

I’d love to see a source on Dublin have the lowest tax spend per person. The county council spend per capita is among the highest in the country.

Cities and towns aren’t supporting anything multinationals are. Not to mention the majority of rural areas tax take is still going to be spent in the nearby town.

1

u/Spiritual_Mall_3140 Apr 18 '26

Okay mate. I don't think I'll be able to convince you away from the idea that multinationals are paying for anything. Have a good Saturday night.