Issues from the Waste Heartland

Two public representatives - Clare Daly and TD Joe Higgins - got one month's jail yesterday, for the peaceful protesting against the new waste charges adopted by Fingal Council in Dublin. I met Clare several times last year - she helped greatly in our campaign to close off any plans for an incinerator in Lusk when I was working on the LuskPeople.com web resource.

I am angered by Clare's jailing, and interpret it to be a gross abuse of state power - she is a committed and honest politician, a people's broker who works tirelessly on behalf of the people who elected her to the Fingal council. A month's jail, when a fine might have sufficed, is unfair and most draconian in its nature, yet it might still serve to motivate and catalyse thousands of people to action -- against a Government that believes its own press releases a little too much, and that treats it's electorate in a most cavalier and charlatan fashion.

Most of the local people in Lusk that I have spoken to see the new bin tag system - where a prepurchased bin tag must be attached to the wheelie bin before it is collected - as unjust and yet another tax on an already sorely-taxed PAYE worker. There is general and genuine anger and resentment among a populace that has had it's fair share of waste - the Ballealy landfill dump for Dublin is just a mile away.

There is mistrust too, that this charge has been introduced as a precursor to privatisation. Most people here see Waste Management as a Government responsibility, and not one that should be proferred on to a private company interested in profit.

Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, accused Clare of 'political grandstanding' yesterday - the day that this mother was jailed for her sincere, democratic views. Since Clare was elected to Fingal Council on an anti-bin tax ticket, how could that possibly be?

There are the first signs of a campaign of misinformation directed to the Socialist Party - of which Clare and Jim are members - that is more intense than normal, as illustrated in Minister Cullen's statement and also in TD Jim Glennon's statement calling for Jim Higgins to resign from the House. Could it be that the more astute in the Government view the anti-bin tax campaign as a very tangible focal point for opposition to this Government, that crosses social, economic and political divides?

Many are aware of the 'polluter pays' policy. But without adequate support for the doorstep recycling of waste, restrictions on excess packaging sold to domestic households 'over the counter' in shops and supermarkets, and the fact that this method of waste disposal is not 'annualised' per household - instead we have charge-per-bin-presented - many also find this system to be unfair, unjust , anti-family/household, and doing little to actually reduce the volume of waste while increasing the quasi-council/privateer coffers.

It is also becoming obvious that Fingal council have managed the public perception as to the introduction of this charge very poorly. The public palette for extra charges might have been softened slightly had we been presented with recycling bins - promised many years ago - hand-in-hand with this charge. Instead we see nothing new for our money.

Many people in Lusk and throughout North Dublin are shocked by the jailing of public representatives yesterday. No amount of 'public perception management' will undo the injustice of the jailing of two honest politicians, while so many on the other side of the political divide who have admitted to crooked dealing and car-park-handshakes have never seen the inside of a court room.

Clare Daly will be elected as a public representative for Dublin North at the next General Election, should she decide to run.

Yesterday's events have assured this.