Households set to benefit from refuse collection waiver scheme

THOUSANDS of households in Co Limerick are to get assistance to help pay the cost of weekly bin collections.

Pensioners and low-income households will benefit from a refuse collection waiver scheme following a decision yesterday by Limerick County Council.

The Fianna Fáil/PD alliance on the council voted in a new waiver scheme at the annual budget meeting.

Cllr Niall Collins, FF, who led the move to introduce the waiver, said it would be of great benefit to many households in the county.

Fine Gael members and the Labour member on the council walked out of the meeting after they failed to get an adjournment in order to assess figures from the Department of the Environment before passing through the annual budget. However, the Fianna Fáil/PD majority group refused to accede to an adjournment and pressed ahead approving the budget for 2007.

Limerick City Council has a waiver scheme in place which benefits up to 5,000 homes in the city.

Mr Collins said: “Last March the Fianna Fáil group on my proposal, and seconded by Kevin Sheahan, passed a motion seeking the establishment of such a scheme for Co Limerick. Now we have followed through on this proposal by providing the necessary funding.”

He said Limerick County Council officials would now draw up the scheme to have it in place operationally for March 2007.

Mr Collins said: “The scheme will provide 26 free refuse collections to all persons living alone whose sole income is a state pension.”

Those entitled to the new refuse collection waiver will include recipients of contributory and non-contributory old age pensions, persons on invalidity and disability pensions and also recipients of widows pensions, deserted wives, blind persons and occupational injury allowances. “I greatly welcome this new scheme for Co Limerick as the burden of refuse costs has been very onerous on our senior citizens since the service was privatised some years ago by the council.”

In bringing forward the scheme, he said they had taken full account of the wishes of the public. “We felt it our duty to follow through and deliver this.”