Guy with a tractor charges €50 to rescue flood victims in Bandon: Lowest of Low!

Would people rather if he had sat at home and done nothing or else charged €50 for his services?

Will the plumbers, builders and decorators employed to clean up be doing it for nothing?

Mechanics fixing the cars which got damaged too?
 
Would people rather if he had sat at home and done nothing or else charged €50 for his services?

Will the plumbers, builders and decorators employed to clean up be doing it for nothing?

Mechanics fixing the cars which got damaged too?

I think that's different though when it's after the event and should be covered by insurance.

As I understood the post it was someone rescuing people who were stuck and isolated due to the floods, but asking for money to do so. I'm sorry but there are times when you put aside personal losses and just help out.

My neighbours car wouldn't start the other morning, so I helped out, got them started and off they went. As a result I was 30 mins late for work. Should I bill my neighbour for the lost time?
 
what would have happened if he had an accident with all the people onboard? he wouldn't have been insured and they could have easily sued him. he was the one taking the greatest risk there i think.
 
what would have happened if he had an accident with all the people onboard? he wouldn't have been insured and they could have easily sued him. he was the one taking the greatest risk there i think.

The difference is he didn't and they didn't, we don't know if they would have either. But what we do know is that people were stranded, helpless and in danger and in order to resuce them from the danger an individual wanted them to get their wallets out first.
 
Latrade: that is exactly the point. I saw on the news tonight that a lot of trade people painters etc. are giving their time for free this week end to help out people.
Have we now got a society where we charge our neighbours if they want helping out? and what could be worse than having your house flooded?
 
If this guy is part of the affected community and is charging €50 to help bail some of them out....then it is most definitely a very uncharitable act on his behalf. Compare this to the tradespeople who will meet up in Westmeath on Sunday and work for free. And the guy with a van who has offered his services for free.

However if he is from outside the community then he is entitled to charge for this service, however unsavoury and unpalatable that it may seem.
 
However if he is from outside the community then he is entitled to charge for this service, however unsavoury and unpalatable that it may seem.

He's entitled to charge, I guess the debate is whether someone with even the slightest remnant of humanity would charge in that situation. As already said, there are people from outside the area helping out as well as local trades all free of charge in their spare time.

If I had any useful skill aside from sarcasm and pointing out why people are wrong, I'd help too.

However, if the people involved just wanted rescuing from Bandon and Co. Cork in general and unrelated to the floods (understandable), then he's entitled to charge a welcome to civilisation tax.
 
If I had any useful skill aside from sarcasm and pointing out why people are wrong, I'd help too.
Don't belittle yourself. The world needs people like us ! How else would they know where they went wrong ?
 

If they needed to be "rescued" they wouldnt have called a farmer with a tractor. €50 quid to cover his costs is nothing.

He took a far greater risk by going for them in the first place. One wrong turn and the tractor could have sat down in a ditch, taking in water and ruining it. Would their community spirit have been as quick to help him buy another tractor? Doubt it. Having a tractor out of action on a farm is like taking the computers out of an office.