Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Nurses car tax and other comments

92% of Irish nurses voted to have 2 strikes here, not for pay increases, that they almost definitely in my opinion should get, but for more staff to be employed. I suppose this could come under the umbrella of "conditions" and I remember when I was working on the docks being told that giving up conditions was far worse than giving up money in negotiations as conditions were a lot harder to get back.

Now I have been into hospitals here quite a bit and honestly A&E is a shambles especially in the public system, more staff and beds are needed desperately, and someone should be looking at the management as well, so, I think,  these nurses striking is actually for the good of everyone not just a play for an easier time at work. Good luck to them and the Government rather than giving tax breaks to score points in the upcoming general election, should be sorting out the hospitals in this country.

I have just had my Subaru Forester converted to a Goods vehicle because the road tax of €2700 per year was skinning me, it now costs €330 a year but sheeeze what a drama getting it done. First the car was in the garage for 8 weeks, yep 8 weeks to remove the back seats and restraints and put a floor in. Apparently most of this time was due to paperwork taking ages.

Anyway I get the car back then have to go through the paperwork part this involved trying to find a policeman or Gaurda as they are called here, finding a cop in rural Ireland is like trying to win Lotto. Eventually I contacted the main station and managed to set up a time to get my form stamped.

Rolled up to the car tax place which is only open a couple of days a week so the que is up the street with all my forms, Gaurda stamped form, Engineers report form, CVRT pass statement, completed tax renewal form, licence, proof of address, certificate of road worthiness. Ohh its also impossible to find on line what documents are required to do this conversion so I was going on the garage as to what documents were required.

The nice lady at the counter explained that she would need a weighbridge ticket and proof of insurance and would be charging me tax in arrears for the month of October, even though the car weight had been filled in by the testing centre on the CVRT form and the car had been off the road for the last 8 weeks. She explained that there is a form that should be completed before the car goes off the road, but I didn't know it was going to take 8 weeks anyway I went to the local port and got them to weigh the car again as the testing centre in Galway had never been asked for a weigh docket before as the weight is written on the form, it cost €30 to weigh the car, they would have done it for nothing but the printing out of the form cost the money.

The nice lady then asked for insurance details and I explained that I had just converted the car from personal use to a commercial one and the policy was expired, she said Ohh we cant tax an uninsured vehicle. Anyway I commented on how nice her hair looked and asked if she had been on a diet and that her lippy was an awesome shade of purple and she eventually gave me the disc.

The que was now back up the road to Spiddal 24 Gaurda had been drafted in from Dublin to control traffic and the fast food van was doing a roaring trade.

 

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