Blockades planned for Dublin's bin collectors

Dublin's bin collectors are likely to face blockades tomorrow as Fingal Council begins collecting refuse only from households…

Dublin's bin collectors are likely to face blockades tomorrow as Fingal Council begins collecting refuse only from households which have paid their bin charge.

Protesters will attempt to stop all collections if bin workers take refuse from paying households while leaving rubbish from non-paying households.

Fingal Anti-Bin Tax Campaign (FABTC) which is organising the protest concedes that rubbish could begin to build up leading to illegal dumping. They say if the campaign runs for several weeks then rubbish could be dropped outside Fingal Co Co offices in O'Connell Street.

Protests tomorrow - which the organisers insist will be peaceful and respectful to bin collectors - are planned on routes in Portmarnock, Malahide, Swords and Blanchardstown and surrounding areas.

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The routes will not be allowed proceed unless all taxpayers' bins are collected. The action will continue on an organised basis every day until the council of the Government changes its way.
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Mr Joe Higgins, Socialist Party TD.

"The routes will not be allowed proceed unless all taxpayers' bins are collected. The action will continue on an organised basis every day until the council of the Government changes its way," Mr Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party said.

His party is heading up a group of concerned residents and independent socialist TDs who claim well over half of all charges due have not been collected by local authorities.

Protests in other local authority areas is Dublin are also planned. Bin depots will be lobbied starting on Thursday with leaflets handed out to workers.

FABTC are appealing for unions to support their campaign and bin collectors who refuse to defy the protesters.

"It is not in the contract of bin collectors to endure the stress of community protest even if it is peaceful and we would hope unions will support anyone who returns to their depot ... [but] we would like the leadership of the unions to have a policy of opposing the taxes," Mr Higgins said.

Protestors claim the bin charge is a stealth tax for a service that as taxpayers they have already paid for. They point out that the National Waste Database in 1999 estimated households accounted for only 1.5 per cent of the nation's waste.