I won’t back down on bin charges, vows Higgins

SOCIALIST Party TD Joe Higgins has vowed to continue his fight against bin charges when he and his party colleague, Cllr Clare Daly, are released from Mountjoy today.

Mr Higgins said the bin charge protest had wider implications and he would raise the issue again in the Dáil on Tuesday.

“The campaign against the bin tax will continue,” he said in a statement sent to Dublin radio station NewsTalk 106FM.

“We know from experience that bin tax is just the thin end of the wedge...There is now increasing pressure to reintroduce water charges, initially of €200 per household per year. We then would have a scenario where every household would be facing local charges, which in a few years could reach €1,000 per year.”

Mr Higgins and Ms Daly were sentenced to a month in jail on September 19 for defying a court injunction against obstructing bin lorries in the Fingal area.

Their release is expected to give renewed impetus to the two-month campaign. Anti-bin charge campaigners are planning to place pickets on all bin truck depots on Monday, a move that will disrupt collections in Dublin City for a second week.

Twelve campaigners are still in prison and it is expected more protesters will be jailed next week.

Environment Minister, Martin Cullen, has accused Mr Higgins and Ms Daly of ‘political grandstanding’. Mr Cullen also rejected claims the bin charges were draconian. He said they were fair and reasonable and people were paying them.

Anti-bin tax campaigners were furious that they were not invited to debate the issue with Mr Cullen, who appeared on the Late Late Show last night.

Mick Murphy of the Anti Bin Tax Campaign said they were disappointed that the minister was interviewed on his own, with some campaigners in the audience. They said they would have preferred if the show had been postponed for a week to allow Mr Higgins appear with the minister.