Two ugly words emerge from both sides of the bin charges debate

We have two big words for you to mull over this morning, and being an equal opportunities digest, they come from both sides of the garbage divide.

The new bin charges proposals allow for the abolishing of a flat-rate fee imposed on householders by some waste companies. Instead, homeowners would have the option of paying by lift or paying by weight.

This gave rise to fears of exorbitant prices for consumers and led to accusations that waste companies would have carte-blanche to impose whatever charges they saw fit.

While all parties accept action needs to be taken to reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill, it seems most are at odds about how to do it.

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The debate has given rise to two displeasing words. The first is: incorporeal. The second is among the most extraordinarily ugly words I have ever heard: remunicipalisation.

The first time I heard of an incorporeal Cabinet meeting was in 2008 on that long night when Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan decided that the only way to rescue the State's banks from doom was to offer the bank guarantee.

There was not enough time to gather the rest of the Cabinet into Merrion Street and a Government decision was needed. Like, now.

That decision was as corporeal as they come, setting the scene for six years of pain.

Last night, the Government was forced to have an incorporeal meeting to agree a response to Fianna Fáil’s latest private members motion.

This time it is on the new pay-by-weight charging elements for domestic waste.

Fianna Fáil wants a regulator (yet another quango) to make sure the householders aren't ripped off by waste companies.

Sinn Féin has put in an amendment calling for the current flat-rate charges to be frozen.

This is where the second word comes in: remunicipalisation.

It is a Sinn Féin word, which means giving control of domestic waste collection back to the local authorities.

I think everybody is getting in on the act. Sinn Féin and the Solidarity-People Before Profit councillors were doing the running on it at Dublin City Council last night. Sinn Féin will also hold a protest outside the Dáil today.

You kind of get the sense that Sinn Féin has nipped in very early on this issue to ensure they won't be outflanked by Paul Murphy and his comrades.

First mover advantage is one thing, but what happens when the socialist revolutionaries start pumping up the volume?

Once again Sinn Féin will be forced into a Hobson’s choice of either going too far down a populist route (with impossible mathematics), or being accused of being traitors of the proletariat.

Whatever the outcome, it will dominate the Dáil today and probably most days between now and the summer recess.