Dublin City Council management have now said that the bin charge waiver previously available to pensioners and those depending on social welfare be dropped. Here Joe Higgins MEP attacks this move, and argues it is a vindication of the anti-bin tax campaign.
Exactly as we predicted back in 2002 and 2003, when the charges were imposed across Dublin, the charges have increased in leaps and bounds. The existence of a waiver system and the smaller amount of the charge at the time its introduction were both used by the four Dublin councils as a means to cut across the campaign of non payment.
The ‘race against waste’ was a sham. Where are the rewards for ordinary householders for compliantly separating their waste? Instead fresh charges have been introduced for Green and Brown bins that were previously nominally ‘free’
These further attacks on the living standards of ordinary people in Dublin are possible because of the connivance of Labour and Fine Gael who together add up to a majority in all the councils in Dublin. The truth is they have no alternative to offer working people and so vote through the estimates with the rump of Fianna Fáil councillors.
When the government through the local authorities attempts to impose water charges on the basis of a ‘free allocation’ after which charges are imposed the lesson will have been learned by householders that once the charge is in, in whatever form, it will increase time and again. Minister Hanafin herself admitted in the Dáil that had water charges not been previously abolished in 1997 householders would be facing bills of up to €800 today! Therefore the water charge must be opposed in whatever form it is initiatlly propose.
CHECK OUT OTHER RELATED ARTICLES:
- Statement from the Campaign in opposition to household and water charges
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- Boycott the meter – boycott the charge
- €600 million to be spent on domestic water meters
- Proposed property tax would be an unbearable burden on working people
