The anti-bin charge campaign has reached a "stalemate" with the Dublin local authorities, in which non-collection of refuse is now limited to a small number of middle-class housing estates, a leading campaigner has claimed.
Mr Richard Boyd Barrett said that in his own area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, the non-collection policy was being applied only in "five or six" estates, where compliance with the bin charges was already high.
"It's clear that the strategy is to avoid working-class areas," he added.
Mr Boyd Barrett was speaking outside Leinster House yesterday at a rally in support of the bin campaigner Mr John Murphy, who suffered a heart attack earlier this week while serving a prison sentence for blocking refuse lorries in south Co Dublin.
Mr Murphy (67) was still being treated in Tallaght Hospital yesterday where his condition was described as "stable".
Protesters have called for his immediate release from prison, but a spokesman for the Department of Justice said he had already been granted temporary release while being treated in hospital. His sentence is due to end on Monday.
Mr Boyd Barrett said Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown had collected only €3 million in bin charges since the end of September, leaving almost €20 million in arrears outstanding, a figure which represented "at least 30,000" non-payers.
However, a spokeswoman for the council disputed that figure, saying that many defaulters had paid initial instalments on arrears due.
The €2.8 million collected in a three-week period in September-October was a 900 per cent increase on the same period in 2002, she said, adding that the council was processing 10,000 applications for waivers.
The spokeswoman dismissed claims that council drivers were not co-operating, saying there was "full co-operation" and the council was "delighted" with the progress made to date.
South Dublin County Council said that of 75,000 households in its area, 16,000 had still not paid any bin charges. A spokesman claimed protests had dwindled, while the council's policy of "red-tagging" - a prelude to non-collection - the bins of defaulters was dramatically reducing their numbers.
The spokesman conceded that the council had yet to extend this policy to much of north Clondalkin and west Tallaght. However, these areas had high levels of deprivation and large numbers of households would be entitled to waivers.
Already 17,000 waivers had been granted in south Dublin and the final figure could be as high as 30,000, he said.
Mr Boyd Barrett claimed the local authorities were hiding behind unrealistically high estimates of waiver-entitlement to mask the extent of non-compliance with the charges.
He said the four main anti-bin charge campaigns would be holding a conference before Christmas to discuss future plans. Predicting a "full assault on working-class areas" in the new year, Mr Boyd Barrett added: "There'll be murder if they go into those areas."
Campaigners plan a protest outside the Moriarty tribunal in Dublin Castle next week when the entrepreneur Mr Denis O'Brien gives evidence, to highlight what they see as stark discrepancies in the State's attitude to tax-collection.
They also plan a "bring back your packaging" day on December 11th, in which members of the public will be urged to return packaging to the supermarkets.
Spokeswoman Ms Joan Collins said the protest would be a response to the TV campaign portraying consumers as "polluters".
