OLDER PEOPLE’S charity Age Action Ireland has called on Dublin City Council to reconsider its decision to introduce waste charges for 40,000 people, including the elderly, who had been given waivers.
Low-income households and pensioners had been exempt from paying for refuse collection since the charges were introduced in 2001.
The council’s standing charge for waste collection services, increased to €96 for 2010, will continue to be waived for those who qualify, but those on low income or receiving a pension will have to pay €6 each time their 240 litre “grey” general refuse bin is collected.
Those with the smaller 140 litre grey bin will pay €3.60 for each lift.
The charge for every lift of the “brown” food-waste bin will be €2, and the charge for bag labels for households not suited to wheelie bins will be €3.
Low-income households could pay an annual bill of up to €208 next year, and the council has said the charges could generate an extra €8 million a year.
Councillors voted to accept the introduction of charges for those who qualified for the waiver as part of the council’s budget vote on Monday.
Eamon Timmins, spokesman for Age Action Ireland, said the decision by the council would add to the financial hardships faced by pensioners on low incomes in 2010.
Already faced with new prescription and carbon charges in 2010, older people in Dublin city would also have to budget for bin charges from their fixed incomes.
He noted that older people in other parts of Ireland, where there were no waiver schemes, shared bins to keep down the collection charges. “Older people and their communities need to come together now to explore how they can cap these new costs and limit the hardship they will cause,” Mr Timmins said.
He called on the council to reconsider the decision.
“You do wonder when politicians come out and talk about the protection of the vulnerable and the poor what that actually means.”
Councillors in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council also voted to accept their budget for 2010 on Monday night by 21 votes to four.
There were no increases in commercial water charges or in waste-collection fees.
The council already charges those on low incomes €4 every time they leave out their grey bins plus 25 cent per kilogramme of weight.
The standing charge of €80 will continue to be waived.
The budget in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown also included a 2 per cent reduction in commercial rates.
The Dún Laoghaire Business Association said it was disappointed at the size of the reduction in rates.
It was poor when compared to “the huge reductions of between 25 per cent and 50 per cent in business experienced by business people”.
“While the 2 per cent reduction is going in the correct direction it is not enough to save the many businesses which will now certainly go out of business early in the new year,” the spokesman said.
