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This week, reporter Ellen Lynch, dons her serious hat and touches on something that she feels very important.

I'm begging the indulgence of readers this week to deviate from the more usual light-hearted tenor of this column. I'd like, if I may, to put on my serious hat, assume an air of gravitas and touch on something altogether more important.

Actually, scrap that. What I'd like to do is have a right good rant. About the Local Property Tax. About Irish Water. And, most of all, about Minister Phil Hogan.

Along with putting fluoride in the water, is the Government slipping something else in? What else could explain our passivity in recent years? Our quiet stoicism in the face of the country going bust, banking scandals, the imposition of first the income levy then the Universal Social Charge. And, more recently, the Local Property Tax and Irish Water, the latter mired in controversy and scandal in its first month.

I vowed that I would not pay the Local Property Tax until 2014 began. What a cheek the Government had, I decided, to not just saddle us with it in the first place, but to then decide we had to pay it up front.

It seems to me a property tax should only be levied on those who actually own properties. Not those who have mortgages on them, meaning, to all intents and purposes, that they are not owned by the persons occupying the properties until it's all paid back to the bank.

And then there's all those people in negative equity. How can the Government, in all conscience, ask them to stump up the charge? I guess the answer lies in that sentence. 'Conscience' and Government don't go together.

What incenses me all the more though is the compliance rate. 'Compliant' being the operative word. 90% of people had paid what they largely considered to be an unfair, unjust tax, by last October. Putting Revenue in charge of collecting it was a canny move. People are afraid of the tax man. That probably accounts for some of the rush to pay ahead of time.

But it really doesn't explain why Irish people, worse off financially than they have been for years, have been so willing to pay a tax for 2014 before the year even began.

The Government initially promised to give back the money (an estimated €500m in 2014) collected to local authorities in the different areas. It didn't take long for them to knock that idea on the head. Now, surprise, surprise it's going into a central fund with the bulk of it going to subsidise Irish Water until it's in a position to generate its own income, which, at the rate millions are being shelled out on consultants, seems quite some way off.

Consider that for a minute. We now have a scenario whereby we are paying our Property Tax for a brand spanking new semi-state company to get off the ground and become financially viable by, wait for it, charging us for water. So we're paying one tax to finance the means to pay another! 

For the record, I'm not against the idea of having to pay for water. I was metered and paid such charges in the years I lived in Canada. I think we don't value it enough as a resource. There's too much wasted and I think we'd all be a lot more prudent if we were charged for how much we use.

But even those who believed at the outset that the Government could never put this plan into action without their being some whiff of scandal must be outraged by the antics that have come to light in recent days. Bord Gais, as the parent company, was meant to provide expertise, and administer the billing and collection of charges.

What happened to that idea? And local authorities have been in charge of water up to now, they could surely have been consulted and provided information on the current state and any shortfalls in infrastructure for a lot less than the €50m spent.

The next big scandal lumbering down the tracks is local Government reform, including the abolition of Town Councils. I've been to enough local authority meetings in recent months to be left with the distinct feeling that no-one, not council members or officials, really know what's coming after the local elections in May.

A senior Cork County Council official admitted as much at a meeting I was covering just last week. She said the functions of the new municipal authorities (that will replace town councils) still haven't been fully decided yet. Just where responsibility lies for important functions and services is a totally unsatisfactory grey area.

Certainly the Minister responsible for introducing the supposed 'reform' isn't enlightening local authorities or those that'll be affected by it, i.e. Joe Public. He seems to be adopting a 'wait and see' modus operandi. We do know it will see some services moved from some areas. There are other serious concerns, that commercial rates will be scaled up from town to county council levels, that parking charges in towns will increase.

There's way too much uncertainty, way too many unanswered questions. It's supposed to save money but who believes that? I can't see any council staff losing their jobs. Their unions will have something to say about it if there's any such threat.

It reminds me of when the old health boards were abolished and replaced by the HSE. What was meant to be a streamlined health agency, devoid of local politicians, grew into the shambling monolith we know it to be today. The same thing is going to happen again.

Already some town councillors facing the axe in May are murmuring about setting up 'community councils' to continue local representation. Except that they will be unelected and so without a mandate from the people.

My second fear is that once set up, they'll set about campaigning for funding until they get it. I've already heard talk of such. We'll end up with another, albeit non-statutory, tier of local government.

Minister Hogan isn't planning on sticking around to see how his local government reform plans pan out. He has his eye on the plum job of European Commissioner. He's looking good for it too, so chances are he'll be long gone when the proverbial hits the fan.

It was in the news on Monday that Dublin Airport had its busiest year since 2009 last year. No wonder with hordes of people clamouring to get out of the country. The Minister will have to beat his way through to get to Europe. No better man.

What about us? Will we continue to be put upon? Are we so beaten down, so docile that nothing is capable of shocking us into action any more?

Our apathy is especially disappointing when you consider that the last group of people that rose up in this country forced the then Fianna Fail-led Government into a U-turn. The old age pensioners of this country, people well used to having to fight for right, took to the streets in short order after the Government decided in the 2008 Budget  to introduce means testing of medical cards for the over 70s. They were out protesting against proposed cuts to medical cards again at Leinster House before last year's budget. 'Good on 'em' a lot of us thought at the time. Before lapsing into apathy once more.

Normal service, I promise dear readers, will resume next week. I'll be back to my sunny self. Unless, that is, I'm locked up in Dublin Castle (I hear it's too overcrowded in Mountjoy) for incitement to riot or some such. In which case I'll agitate for Ireland from the confines of the lovely building used to attempt to wrest some accountability for the people of this country through the Flood/Mahon and Moriarty Tribunals. How supremely ironic that would be.

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