Council Votes Against Bin Charges

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday December 24, 2002 03:07 by Justin Moran - Sinn Fein maigh_nuad at yahoo dot com

There was a full attendance of councillors at the Dublin City Council meeting on the Estimates for the year to come this evening and as the Councillors sat down to business the chants of the protestors outside could be clearly heard.

There was a full attendance of councillors at the Dublin City Council meeting on the Estimates for the year to come this evening and as the Councillors sat down to business the chants of the protestors outside could be clearly heard.

A crowd of what I estimated to be 30-40 people, about half SF and half Campaign Against the Bin Tax, (Numbers might have changed after I went in) were outside as Councillors arrived.

Inside, the farce that is local democracy was in full swing leading one comrade who was attending a Council meeting for the first time to remark that you normally had to pay to see the circus.

The debate on the Estimates was the sole item on the agenda. Labour put forward an alternative Budget but it was, as Labour expected, ruled out of order on the basis that the overwhelming majority of proposals were outside the remit of the Council.

A great deal of time was taken up debating about Dermot Lacey's letter to Pat Carey basically pledging his personal support to the Bin Charges as he was Mayor and thus felt responsible to discharge the Mayoral responsibility to keep the Council going.

There folowed some shouting, personal abuse and snide comments during which FF and the Greens said they would be backinbg the motion and everyone else said they would be opposing it.

The vote was 27 Against (SF, Labour, FG and Independents) the Estimates, 22 in Favour (FF and Greens, despite the Greens admitting the Council had failed to deliver on the gurantees they were given in return for their votes last year) of the Estimates. As soon as the vote was over the FF councillors left the Chamber in bloc.

After they left, Labour councillors proposed from the floor that another meeting of the Council take place before the 29th of December (Midnight on that day being the deadline by which the Estimates must be passed) in the hope that a deal could be thrashed out.

SF, FG and Independent councillors opposed this on the basis that the Estimates had been voted down, no compromise was possible and it was up to the Minister to do his own dirty work. The vote tied and Dermot Lacey cast his vote as Mayopr to pass the Charges.

And so, there will be one more crucial meeting on the Estimates. The margin is, for the first time I think, on the side of the opposition. We go into the next meeting with a five vote lead meaning that FF and the Greens need to back it again and they need to find three Councillors willing to switch sides.

If the CHarges are defeated on the 29th, the Council collapses, Cullen appoints a Commissioner to run Dublin and the sham democracy that we have at local level will be exposed for all to see.