Dublin bin privatisation debacle

CHAOS MARKS SWITCH FOR RUBBISH COLLECTIONS | BIG CHANGES FACE HOUSEHOLDS

BY MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA, DUBLIN SINN FÉIN COUNCILLOR

THE DOMINANT Fine Gael and Labour groups on Dublin City Council cannot wash their hands of the debacle of bin privatisation in the city as their parties in Government are following a privatisation agenda.
There was widespread disruption and confusion following the privatisation of Dublin City Council’s household waste collection service on 16 January. This has led to the calling of a Special Meeting of the City Council, such was the anger at the way this was handled by City Council management and the private company Greyhound, who took over the local government public service.
People were informed only at the last minute that the changeover was happening. The facility for quarterly payment of the €100 standing charge was set aside, making it harder for families already under financial pressure to juggle their household budgets to meet the new bin company demands. There will be no waiver for low-income families and individuals after 2012. All bin lifts must be paid for in advance. In many areas bins were not lifted at the promised time or not at all. And already charges are set to increase in July.
No arrangements were put in place to collect from the many households in the city with tagged bags. Citizens with their names and addresses in the Irish language got no correspondence from Greyhound and it turned out that the Council management had not passed on the list of names and addresses in Irish.
The Council management has effectively set up a private monopoly in place of its former service as citizens will find it extremely difficult to get other companies to provide a collection.
While there were no staff redundancies (with former Council bin lorry workers being redeployed), workers were left in the dark about their fate. Greyhound does not recognise unions and workers in the private company face lower wages and poorer conditions. It has to be said that the leadership of the trade union movement has not exactly covered itself in glory in failing to resist privatisation in the four Dublin local authorities, the City Council being the last to fall.
There was further anger a couple of days after the handover to Greyhound when the private company falsely claimed in The Irish Times that no bin lifts had been missed. “A deliberate falsehood” was how I described this at the City Council meeting and councillors from all parties, who knew the reality, concurred with me.
City Council management must be challenged on the negotiation of the privatisation deal. They were content to let Greyhound demand the €100 annual standing charge upfront. Yet, within two days of the handover, Greyhound, responding to public pressure, agreed to accept two instalments of €50. What were the Council negotiators doing?
The Fine Gael and Labour groups who dominate Dublin City Council cannot evade responsibility for this mess. They fully supported the City Council 2012 Budget which was based on the privatisation of this service; Sinn Féin opposed it.
Many Fine Gael councillors openly supported the privatisation while their Labour Party colleagues claimed to be opposed to it.
Both Fine Gael and Labour pointed out that the power to privatise waste management or not had been taken from elected councillors and given to city and county managers by the Fianna Fáil/PD Government. This is correct and it made the claimed opposition to privatisation by Fianna Fáil councillors ring very hollow. But the Fine Gael/Labour assertions ring hollow too. In Government, they have done nothing to reverse the legislation which undermines democracy. Nor have they moved to provide for a state-wide waiver scheme for waste charges.
In Government, the Fine Gael and Labour parties are pursuing a privatisation agenda as part of a failed austerity strategy that is bringing misery to people in Dublin and across Ireland with widespread cutbacks, punitive charges and mass unemployment and emigration. We in Sinn Féin will continue to oppose privatisation and defend public services.

Septic tanks Bill forced through by FG/Labour

SINN FÉIN PROTESTS IN DÁIL, SEANAD AND ON THE STREETS | MARTIN FERRIS TD ORDERED OUT OF DÁIL

Martin Ferris TD addresses an anti-Septic Tank charges protest outside Leinster House

THE Dáil has passed the Water Services Amendment Bill. Sinn Féin accused the Fine Gael/Labour Government of running scared of a full debate and Martin Ferris TD was ordered out of the chamber on 26 January when he argued against the Government guillotining the debate on septic tanks.
Pearse Doherty said: “Rather engage in rationale discussion, they are shutting down debate and forcing the Bill through the Oireachtas without full information on standards and regulations being made available.”
The legislation introducing the septic tank charge was passed by 76 votes to 34, with Sinn Féin voting against it. Outside the Dáil, there has been a wave of public anger at meetings organised by local groups and Sinn Féin, each meeting attracting hundreds of people worried about how they will pay the extra charges for tank inspections and repairs or replacements.
Sinn Féin Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh said:
“Clearly there are alternatives. Sinn Féin is demanding that the Government scrap the €50 registration fee, provide grant aid to those that may have to upgrade their system, withdraw their threat of criminalising rural communities and that they don’t apply current standards to existing systems.”
He was speaking at one of a number of meetings organised in Mayo and Connemara by Sinn Féin Councillors Thérèse Ruane and Rose Conway-Walsh. Thérèse Ruane said:
“Sinn Féin is fully aware that we need to protect our environment, we fully support the registering of septic tanks and the need to carry out remedial work. We fully understand the need to comply with the EU directive. But we are not proposing to punish the ordinary rural household. We are proposing a commonsense approach.
“Any inspection and agreed remedial work should be funded through an income-related grant scheme. Funding should be sought from EU Structural Funds and matched with funding from the Department of Environment. This would in turn act as a stimulus to the current ailing economy and assist in job creation in many of these rural areas.”
Cavan Sinn Féin Comhairle Ceantair have formed a protest committee to organise a series of small public demonstration’s over the next two months culminating in a large public rally to be held on Saturday 31 March in Cavan Town.
On Friday 10 February (2pm), Environment Minister Phil Hogan TD will be in the Hotel Kilmore, Cavan Town, for the official opening of the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland spring seminar. A Cavan Sinn Féin spokesperson said: “It is our intention to have a large protest outside this meeting covering a range of issues under Phil Hogan’s brief (septic tank inspections, water charges, Household Tax, etc) ahead of a public rally on Saturday 31 March at 2pm in Cavan Town Centre.”

Paying or not paying the Household Charge

FINE GAEL & LABOUR’S NEW TAX | RESIDENTS NEED TO MAKE INFORMED DECISION

SINN FÉIN has urged everyone to make themselves fully aware of the potential legal and financial consequences if they don’t register and don’t pay the new €100 Household Charge. Sinn Féin is campaigning inside and outside the Dáil for the abolition of the Household Charge.
Dublin West Sinn Féin representative Paul Donnelly cautioned people, though, that messages circulating on Facebook and Twitter claiming the public do not have to register for the Household Charge and that it is not obligatory to pay are wrong.
“The Household Charge Bill is very clear: it is illegal not to register and illegal not to pay the €100,” Paul Donnelly said. “If householders (those who own their property) fail to register or fail to pay the €100 they can be brought to court by their local authority and, if found guilty by a district court judge, they will receive a Class C fine (i.e. between €1,000 and €2,500).
“There is a lot of disingenuous information being put out there and I want to plead with householders to be guided by their own examination of the facts, and then make a properly-informed decision.”
He reiterated that Sinn Féin are totally opposed to this unfair charge “and despite some misinformation from other political opponents, this remains our steadfast position”. He added:
“We are totally committed to supporting residents who make that conscious and informed decision not to pay.
“We have also been very steadfast in pointing out the possible consequences of not paying the Household Charge. We are the only party opposed to this disgraceful charge that is properly informing the public on the implications of not paying.”