EVERY WEEK, WE take a look at the best comments left by you, our lovely readers, on TheJournal.ie.

This week, you’ve been talking a lot about next week’s Budget – especially the household charge, the motor tax and an idea for a wealth tax -, the Euro 2012 draw, Ireland’s future in the euro, orang-utans, the Toy Show, Jaffa Cakes – and a whole lot more.

So here’s our pick for our favourite comments of the week:

Siobhán Burke had an interesting perspective on the story of the paralympic athlete who regained the use of her legs after an accident

A great story, but I think it’s a problem if it gets spun as one where being able-bodied is the miraculous be-all and end-all. This woman wasn’t hanging her hopes on a ‘miracle’ recovery. Instead she was getting on with making a fantastic life for herself with or without a disability.

We asked readers what they’d do if they were in charge of the Budget – and Paul Nelson suggested that people on the dole should be offered €10,000 to emigrate:

i have been on the dole for 3 years and i would be gone in the morning if i could, maybe you would prefer for them to sit at home forever just watching time roll by? you have to face the reality that there are no jobs, and with more and more ‘adjustments’ every budget that situation is not going to improve, try looking at it from a rational perspective, people prefer to feel useful

Conor Murphy analysed Jeremy Clarkson’s ‘joke’ about wanting to execute striking public sector workers:

This is all easily explained.

1. Publicity sells books
2. Clarkson writes books
3. Christmas is coming

QED

Liam Hanrahan disagreed with the readers who voted in our poll to say that they would not pay the household charge, which will be introduced in next week’s Budget:

The hysteria over a property tax is ridiculous. We’;re the only country in europe where a local tax isnt levied to pay for local services such as public amenities, playgrounds, pathways etc. In fact the only ones who pay for those locally are businesses paying commercial rates. The reason we’ve such underdeveloped roads, poor water supply, bad broadband, private bin services is because the govt did away with the local rates in 1982.These local services will get a whole lot worse if its not properly introduced. However it shouldnt be a flat rate, it should be based on house size/ability to pay etc.Either we stump up a local tax or we increase the national income taxes ie 20% rate to 25% & 45%. Thats whats paid in the rest of the developed world..

Damien Kelly gave his own perspective on how the fight against HIV has changed:

I’ve been living with HIV for seven years. If it wasn’t for the antiretroviral drugs I’d be dead. Huge advances in the treatment and decreases in the stigma attached to the virus have been achieved, but there’s still a long way to go. The virus is seen as a manageable disease and therefore not the threat is once was. This is folly. I wish the only impact on my life was the taking of a tablet each evening. Little is known about the long-term effects of these drugs; nor about the very real risk of dementia, cancers, pneumonia, skin conditions and the host of opportunistic infections being infected leaves you prone to. Education is everything.

Liam McDermott was fast off the mark with a pun in the story about an English motorway was closed after a truck carrying 23 tonnes of Marmite overturned and shed its load:

Commuters are either going to love this news or hate it……

Rob Queen was unimpressed with the government’s cynical reasons for increasing the motor tax:

This was a rare example of a green measure which actually worked, despite using the carrot rather than the stick. You trade in your gas guzzler for a more fuel-efficient car, we’ll give you a nice low tax rate in return. The car buyer gains from lower tax and the planet gains from less emissions. But o no, it’s not making enough money. Time to backtrack! Which just goes to show, governments are ONLY interested in ‘green’ measures when they can make money out of them.

After Nicolas Sarkozy’s dramatic speech about restarting Europe, Simon Cunnane suggested the French leader could be on to something:

He’s not wrong you know.Brendan Keenan put it well yesterday in The Independent when he said “…the Euro is a currency without a Government”. For the European project to succeed, of course there will need to be further integration. We’re a very small nation and we need to decide whether we’re better off in or out.In relation to MNC’s pulling out due to EU tax harmonisation, our new Government need to understand very quickly that, just like the property bubble, you can’t rely on one source of income (or in this case, large-scale employment). We need to encourage indigenous entrepreneurship and continue to invest in technology, agriculture, manufacturing and tourism.

We have a lot to offer. Can we still offer it if we exclude ourselves from Europe and the Euro?

Conor Byrne had some sympathy for the German man jailed this week for trying to rob a bank – which had closed almost two decades ago:

17 years of planning, all ruined by one small detail…