Council vows no waste collection if bin charges are not paid

HOUSEHOLDERS in South Dublin who have not paid their bin charges have been warned their refuse will not be collected.

South Dublin County Council, which had stopped collecting household waste from most people who refused to pay, says its action is being extended over the coming weeks to the remaining 28% of non-payers.

Meanwhile, 12 people, including Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins and party colleague Councillor Clare Daly, remain in prison arising out of the ongoing anti-bin charge campaign in the greater Dublin area.

SIPTU president Jack O’Connor was heckled at Saturday’s protest at which 2,000 demonstrators gathered at Mountjoy Prison in support of the campaign. The hecklers challenged the union leader for not calling for widespread industrial action.

Mr O’Connor reminded hecklers, some of whom were waving their SIPTU membership cards at him, that they were there for freedom of speech.

He pointed out it was a denial of the right to protest that had Mr Higgins and SIPTU activist Clare Daly in prison for the past three weeks.

Attended by family and friends of the 10 people jailed last week, the protest was organised by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions (DCTU). Delegations from trade union councils in centres around the country travelled to Dublin to take part in the demonstration which began at noon from Parnell Square.

Outside the prison, Councillor Ruth Coppinger contrasted the imprisonment of ordinary workers with reports last week of a property developer paying a politician £30,000 (€38,000) to fix the address of a new house.

DCTU stalwart Sam Nolan noted that Finglas was terrorised by “murderers, drug dealers and gangsters, who are walking the streets” while bin protestors were in Mountjoy Prison.

The unions officially backing the protest were SIPTU, the TEEU craft union and the ATGWU, represented by former regional secretary Mick O’Reilly, who urged they consider further protests in working hours and action such as the “no fares” one-day protest by CIE employees last June.

Union officials handed in a letter to the governor of Mountjoy expressing solidarity with those in jail.

In the letter, DCTU pledged to engage in a campaign among trade unions to force the Government and the local authorities to provide water, sanitation and refuse services from central funding.