Anti Bin Tax Demonstration

by All Dublin Anti Bin Tax Campaigns Tue Jul 01, 2003 16:51

The Government intends to bluntly guillotine the “Protection of the Environment Bill, 2003,” through the Dáil tonight. The “Protection of the Environment Bill, 2003,” is a Trojan Horse containing measures attempting to smash the Anti Bin Tax Campaign in the greater Dublin area.

City or County Managers are being given the power to set the levels of the refuse charges/ bin tax. In particular, the Government hopes it will intimidate the tens of thousands of householders in Dublin who are boycotting the bin tax through allowing Councils to leave their bins uncollected.

Non Collection Will Be Resisted

The four Anti Bin Tax Campaigns in the greater Dublin area are adamant that the Campaign will not be broken. Democratic people power at local level will be employed to mobilise openly in opposition to the threat of non- collection. Council refuse trucks will be delayed in housing estates until all bins are collected as at present.

The Government’s agenda is clear. It wishes to break the Anti Bin Tax Campaign in Dublin. If that were to happen, the refuse charges would rise dramatically. There would then be a move to reintroduce water charges. Before long, each household could face up to €1,000 per year in what would be essentially a parallel tier of local taxation. This would be intolerable for very many households already hard put to meet constantly rising costs.

This is in contrast to the Government’s treatment of the corporate sector that is getting a tax/ PRSI reduction this year of just under €1 billion.

Measures in Bill that attack local democracy and PAYE taxpayers

Section 26 of the Bill removes the power to review, vary or replace a waste management plan from elected councillors and gives it exclusively to City or County Managers. Thus for example, the rejection of a toxic waste incinerator voted on by Cork County Council very recently, could not happen if this Bill is passed.

Section 49 of the Bill removes the setting of the level of bin taxes from elected councillors and gives it exclusively to City and County Managers. This will further propel the attempt of councils to ratchet up the amount of refuse charges on householders. This can also be a prelude to an attempt to privatise the household refuse collection services where that has not already happened.

Section 29 of the Bill proposes to give council management the right to leave bins uncollected where a charge has not been paid as demanded by the council. This is a blatant attempt to smash the widespread boycott of the bin tax that is happening in the greater Dublin area at the present time.

A real waste management policy – not a new tax in disguise.

Charging for household refuse is not a waste policy, it is an attempt to raise new taxes. The fact is that the most recent EPA National Survey (1998) found the amount of total waste arisings accounted for by householders was only 1.5% while the vast bulk was accounted for by large-scale agriculture, industry and construction. Householders only account for 13% of waste going to landfills.

Nevertheless, further measures can be taken to assist householders to cut down the amount going to landfill. This would require legislation requiring the mandatory reduction of unnecessary packaging which householders are forced to take home with them and which then has to go into refuse bins. In this sense it is nonsense to describe householders as “polluters” - they are in fact waste receivers from others. The four anti bin tax campaigns in Dublin call for the resourcing from central taxation of a radical programme of measures to reduce waste at source and for reuse and recycling.

by Justin Moran - Sinn Féin Tue Jul 01, 2003 21:17 maigh_nuad at yahoo dot com

A crowd of 40 Sinn Féin activists and supporters picketed Leinster House this evening in protest at the passing of the Protection Against the Environment Bill.

They were joined by the part's TDs and a number of the Dublin City Councillors who have been prominent in Sinn Féin's campaign against the Bin Tax.

Protestors received numerous beeps of support from members of the public, notably taxis and busses with a special cheer for a Dublin Bus bin collector.

The protest lasted about an hour as inside Leinster House the debate about the Protection against the Environment, which has so far taken up almost 40 hours, of debate, continued. Over 150 amendments have been put from Sinn Féin, Greens, Labour, Socialist Party and Fine Gael.

At the moment, the Bill is set to pass the final stage of the debate at 9.30pm tonight.

by Buswoman - Dublin Bus Tue Jul 01, 2003 22:21

"Protestors received numerous beeps of support from members of the public, notably taxis and busses with a special cheer for a Dublin Bus bin collector." "Dublin Bus bin collector"! Eh? Justin? As someone who works in Dublin Bus myself I or any of my work colleagues have never heard of a "Dublin Bus bin collector". Typo error surely?

by Justin Moran - Sinn Féin Wed Jul 02, 2003 12:51 maigh_nuad at yahoo dot com

Dublin Bus Bin Collection? Must have been half asleep, Dublin Corpo Bin Truck.

by Interested Wed Jul 02, 2003 13:25

Was the bill passed?

by Justin Moran - Sinn Féin Wed Jul 02, 2003 13:32 maigh_nuad at yahoo dot com

It was indeed. The vote was 69 to 54 and the list of who voted what way is below. All the Bill now requires is the signature of the President and it's law.

The Dáil divided: Tá, 69; Níl, 54.

Tá

Ahern, Michael.
Ahern, Noel.
Andrews, Barry.
Ardagh, Seán.
Aylward, Liam.
Brady, Johnny.
Brady, Martin.
Browne, John.
Callanan, Joe.
Callely, Ivor.
Carey, Pat.
Carty, John.
Cassidy, Donie.
Collins, Michael.
Cooper-Flynn, Beverley.
Cowen, Brian.
Cregan, John.
Cullen, Martin.
Curran, John.
Davern, Noel.
Dempsey, Noel.
Dempsey, Tony.
Dennehy, John.
Devins, Jimmy.
Ellis, John.
Fahey, Frank.
Finneran, Michael.
Fitzpatrick, Dermot.
Fleming, Seán.
Gallagher, Pat The Cope.
Glennon, Jim.
Hanafin, Mary.
Haughey, Seán.
Hoctor, Máire.
Jacob, Joe.
Keaveney, Cecilia.
Kelleher, Billy.
Kelly, Peter.
Killeen, Tony.
Lenihan, Brian.
Lenihan, Conor.
McCreevy, Charlie.
McDaid, James.
McDowell, Michael.
McEllistrim, Thomas.
McGuinness, John.
Moynihan, Donal.
Moynihan, Michael.
Mulcahy, Michael.
Nolan, M.J.
Ó Cuív, Éamon.
O'Connor, Charlie.
O'Dea, Willie.
O'Donnell, Liz.
O'Flynn, Noel.
O'Keeffe, Batt.
O'Malley, Fiona.
O'Malley, Tim.
Parlon, Tom.
Power, Peter.
Power, Seán.
Ryan, Eoin.
Sexton, Mae.
Smith, Michael.
Wallace, Dan.
Walsh, Joe.
Wilkinson, Ollie.
Woods, Michael.
Wright, G.V.

Níl
Allen, Bernard.
Boyle, Dan.
Breen, James.
Broughan, Thomas P.
Burton, Joan.
Connolly, Paudge.
Costello, Joe.
Coveney, Simon.
Crawford, Seymour.
Crowe, Seán.
Cuffe, Ciarán.
Deasy, John.
Deenihan, Jimmy.
Durkan, Bernard J.
English, Damien.
Enright, Olwyn.
Gilmore, Eamon.
Gormley, John.
Gregory, Tony.
Harkin, Marian.
Hayes, Tom.
Higgins, Joe.
Higgins, Michael D.
Howlin, Brendan.
Kehoe, Paul.
McCormack, Padraic.
McGinley, Dinny.
McGrath, Finian.
McGrath, Paul.
Mitchell, Olivia.
Morgan, Arthur.
Murphy, Gerard.
Naughten, Denis.
Neville, Dan.
Ó Caoláin, Caoimhghín.
Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
O'Keeffe, Jim.
O'Shea, Brian.
O'Sullivan, Jan.
Pattison, Seamus.
Penrose, Willie.
Perry, John.
Quinn, Ruairi.
Rabbitte, Pat.
Ring, Michael.
Ryan, Eamon.
Ryan, Seán.
Sargent, Trevor.
Sherlock, Joe.
Shortall, Róisín.
Stagg, Emmet.
Stanton, David.
Upton, Mary.
Wall, Jack.

Tellers:Tá, Deputies Hanafin and Kelleher; Níl, Deputies Durkan and Stagg.

Question declared carried.

by Curious Wed Jul 02, 2003 17:26

Why werent they on the protest?

by Enough Thu Jul 03, 2003 21:30

Do you really believe that the SP weren't there or are you just sh*t stirring like the others (maybe you are one of the others)

by Killian Forde Fri Jul 04, 2003 01:03

As one of few people at the protest I can safely say that there was no one there except sinn fein members.

No idea why - just reporting a fact