Plans to make the poorest pensioners in Cork city pay bin charges have been defeated by a campaign organised by Socialist Party councillor Mick Barry.
Cork City Manager Joe Gavin had planned to introduce a €3 bin tag charge for pensioners whose sole source of income is the social welfare pension in 2007.
The proposed charge was expected to cost pensioners €300,000 this year. But the real value of the proposal for City Hall was its "foot in the door" value - the fact that, once introduced, the charge would only increase in coming years, probably including future charges for bins as well as bin lifts.
Mick Barry wrote a full page article for the Evening Echo warning pensioners of the plan and Socialist Party supporters leafleted bingo halls calling on pensioners to make protests to councillors on the issue. Posters went up in shops all over Cork’s Northside comparing the City Manager to Scrooge. No secret was made of the fact that the political establishment as a whole would be held responsible if this was allowed through the Council and that the Socialist Party would make this a general election issue.
On the night of the Council’s budget meeting Mr Gavin opened proceedings by announcing that the plan was being scrapped and that €1 million had unexpectedly been provided to the Council by the government on the morning of the Budget which allowed him to make this change.
Despite attempts by Fianna Fail to claim credit for the €1 million everyone on Cork’s Northside knows that it was their Socialist Party councillor and "people power" which won the day.
