26 July 2001 Edition
Drogheda protest rejects incineration
The decision by Dublin Environment Minister, Noel Dempsey, to take decision-making powers on waste management away from local authorities, has continued to provoke anger throughout the country, this time in Drogheda.
Last Saturday, at a protest against incineration plans for the county, Sinn Féin councillor Arthur Morgan said that Dempsey's bill had made a mockery of the Dublin government's claim to support local democracy.
He said that the decision to centralise waste management powers arose from the government's fear of `people power': ``Fianna Fáil, supported by their partners in the PDs, do not like the effect of democracy at Council level. They do not like it when councils such as Galway, Laoise and Louth refuse to accept incineration.''
In 1999, a constitutional amendment on local government had formally accorded state recognition to the role of local government in ``providing a forum for the democratic representation of local communities in exercising and performing at local level, powers and functions conferred by law''. However, less than two years later, the same government that supported the 1999 amendment decided to take waste management powers away from local councils.
Last Saturday, at a protest against incineration plans for the county, Sinn Féin councillor Arthur Morgan said that Dempsey's bill had made a mockery of the Dublin government's claim to support local democracy.
He said that the decision to centralise waste management powers arose from the government's fear of `people power': ``Fianna Fáil, supported by their partners in the PDs, do not like the effect of democracy at Council level. They do not like it when councils such as Galway, Laoise and Louth refuse to accept incineration.''
In 1999, a constitutional amendment on local government had formally accorded state recognition to the role of local government in ``providing a forum for the democratic representation of local communities in exercising and performing at local level, powers and functions conferred by law''. However, less than two years later, the same government that supported the 1999 amendment decided to take waste management powers away from local councils.