€200 increase in refuse charges ‘on the way’

HOUSEHOLDERS will pay up to €200 extra for refuse collection next year, according to a Fine Gael survey.

Business people are also facing an average 8% rise in commercial rates since the Government lifted the cap on the amount local authorities could charge.

Fine Gael enterprise, trade and employment spokesman Gerard Murphy, who carried out the survey, said local authorities will be forced to impose the increases because they are facing a cash crisis.

The Local Government Fund, which local authorities get every year from the Exchequer, will be totally eaten up next year by the new wage deals agreed under benchmarking, Deputy Murphy said. "While local authorities are expected to foot the bill for these major wage increase, they are getting no extra money from the Government who negotiated and sanctioned these increases," he said.

This year the Local Government Fund amounted to €593 million but if local authorities get the same funding for 2003 it will not cover the increases, Deputy Murphy said.

However, Junior Environment Minister Noel Ahern said the stark reality is that there is no bottomless well of funding.

Government funding of local authorities has increased by 75% in the past five years and the increases were well ahead of inflation, Minister Ahern said. And grants for non-national roads have also increase 100% since 1999, he added.