The Lord Mayor of Dublin has appealed to anti-bin tax campaigners not to blockade Dublin depots, so that parks department trucks can deal with Hallowe'en bonfires. Marie O'Halloran reports.
Cllr Royston Brady says it is particularly important this week that the city's parks department trucks have free access from their depots as they attempt to remove "debris" and stockpiles for bonfires which are "illegal and dangerous".
He also called on businesses not to give youngsters pallets and old tyres for bonfires, and he backed the calls for petrol stations not to sell fuel to children. "You're handing them live dynamite," he stressed.
The Lord Mayor made his appeal following talks with the Dublin City Manager and Chief Fire Officer.
In the run-up to Hallowe'en local authority parks departments spend virtually all their time removing "stockpiles of wooden pallets, crates and tyres from parks and gardens" to reduce the "mayhem and havoc" at Hallowe'en.
Cllr Brady said that local authority parks and gardens are often so badly damaged that they cannot be used for two years after bonfires and he said "we are trying to be pro-active rather than reacting after the damage is done and some of the damage can't be undone".
The parks department and bin trucks operate from the same depots. The campaigners "are entitled to protest but I'm asking them to not stop work that really needs to be done", he said.
A spokeswoman for the Anti-Bin Tax Campaign said that "our argument isn't with the parks department". Cllr Ruth Coppinger said that resuming the blockades was under discussion. "We have had a two-week moratorium on the depots and nothing has happened and a lot of people are saying we should start the protest again."
Cllr Coppinger said she had not had discussions with the other campaign leaders but she did not believe the group had a problem with parks department vehicles leaving depots.
However, the Lord Mayor pointed out that the truck a protester fell from when it drove from the depot was a parks department truck.
Cllr Coppinger said that the driver of that truck "made a solo run" and that all the drivers in the depots had made a decision not to exit.
The Lord Mayor said, "we're asking companies and factories not to let kids onto their premises to take pallets, tyres and other stuff. A lot of factories are giving kids access to take this type of thing and it is very, very dangerous."
The city authorities "are not going to get everything" but if they could cut the risks and the dangers to local communities, by reducing the amount of flammable material available to make bonfires, the danger of Hallowe'en would be reduced.