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Fingal
Anti-Bin Tax Campiagn Press Release
23rd March 2004 |
Bin Tax Minister's Attempts To Remove The Bin Tax As A Local Election Issue Will Not Succeed Minister Martin Cullen’s announcement this morning, telling local authorities to change to a pay-by-weight or volume system for waste collection is a cynical move. Pretending that this will slash waste collection costs to the householder, he hopes to remove the bin tax as an issue in the Local Elections. He will not succeed. The pay-by-weight system allows for a basic flat charge on top of which a charge per unit of waste is levied. This flat charge can be raised by the local authorities as relentlessly as the existing flat charges and become the same burden as the existing system. Furthermore, local authorities can set any price they wish on a unit of waste and this can also rise each year. Mr. Cullen’s pretence that this will definitely reduce the burden of bin taxes on householders is false. The pay by volume system simply means that a tag must be bought when a bin is put out for collection. The tag could be €5 or it could be €20 and therefore, local authorities or private waste collectors can charge what they wish. There is nothing in today’s announcement by the Minister for the Environment that changes the Government’s intention to impose, in essence, a new tier of local taxation that can reach €1,000 per year per household, through increasing waste charges and the reintroduction of water charges. We will ensure that these issues are highlighted on the agenda for the Local Election Campaign. The Alternative The Environmental Protection Agency found that only 15% of what goes to landfill is accounted for by households. This can still be dramatically reduced in the following ways: · Measures to be implemented to radically reduce waste at source e.g. in retail outlets; · Separation, recycling and reuse facilities to be made easily accessible to all communities, especially by door-to-door collections; · Bye laws can then be introduced requiring that no recyclables go into the grey or black bin going to landfill. These measures could reduce waste by 80% and not introduce any bin tax burden on households. Local authorities should be adequately funded by Government to provide these services. This would cost only a fraction of the €634 million which the Government is giving back each year from now on to big business through reduction in corporation tax. For
further information, contact Cllr. Ruth Coppinger at 087 6730187 or Cllr.
Clare Daly at 087 7415576 |