The proposal by the Green Party to charge a tax of 1c upon all texts messages sent in Ireland has been met with varied reaction, and a poll carried out yesterday by Gadgetrepublic.com showed that 43.1pc of respondents feel this tax is a good idea.
The Gadgetrepublic.com poll – carried out on SurveyMonkey.com – questioned over 70 Irish mobile phone users and found that while 37.5pc of those who responded did not agree with the text tax of 1c, some 25pc felt it was a good idea, depending on where the Government chose to spend the money collected.
While this proposed initiative has been deemed “unfair and injust” by industry body, the Irish Cellular Industry Association (ICIA), it has provoked similar reactions from mobile-phone users questioned by Gadgetrepublic.com via Twitter.
“25m texts/day sent. By 365 days by €.01/text = €91m. Long way from a solution. Worth the administrative cost?,” said Keith Martin.
Tom Murphy considered the future implications: “It’s a rare tax once instituted that doesn’t get raised later. Texting is a negligible cost to prov so should be almost free.”
Meanwhile, Dave Meehan pointed out that: “A 1c charge could be an additional 10pc.”
By Marie Boran
