Dublin council likely to pass budget

Dublin city councillors are likely to approve the city's budget for 2006 tonight, despite a 5 per cent increase in domestic refuse collection charges.

However the vote will be tight, and strong attendance from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors will be necessary if the €1.8 billion budget is to be passed. The 5 per cent rise in waste charges means an annual increase of about €11 per household in 2006.

Councillors no longer have the power to determine waste management charges since 2003. They are set by the city manager in the weeks prior to the adoption of the budget estimates.

Councillors have in previous years attempted to use a vote against the estimates as leverage in their campaign to stop the imposition of domestic bin charges.

Since elimination or reduction of the charge has not been forthcoming, refusal to pass the budget has become a protest vote against the concept of bin charges.

Of the 52-member council, the 10 Sinn Féin councillors and three independent councillors, Vincent Jackson, Joan Collins and Mick Rafferty, are committed to voting against the budget.

The Fianna Fáil group is set to vote in favour of the budget. With 12 members it has a strong position on the council, however two councillors have already indicated that they cannot attend tonight's meeting for personal reasons.

Fine Gael has 10 councillors and, as a group, has indicated it intends to vote in favour of the budget. However one councillor, Dr Bill Tormey from the Finglas electoral ward, plans to vote against.

The sole PD councillor, Wendy Hederman, and the sole Green councillor, Bronwen Maher, have said they will vote for the budget.

The verdict of the Labour group will be the deciding factor. There will be no whip on the 15-member group, according to group leader Kevin Humphreys, but he is advising fellow councillors to support the budget.

"The budget has nothing to do with the bin charges and people who vote against the budget are holding onto an old bone and are misrepresenting the issue to their communities."

However there are Labour councillors who are determined not to pass the budget. Last year Emer Costello and John Gallagher voted against the estimates on issues related to the waste charges and are likely to register their opposition again this year.

Eric Byrne also voted against the budget last year, because of a lack of amenities in the Crumlin area, and has said he remains uncertain how he will vote tonight.

There is a risk that other Labour councillors will divert from the group line tonight, given that there is an increase in the bin charges.

Fine Gael group leader Gerry Breen said the principle of bin charges had largely been accepted by the public.

"Anyone who thinks they'll maintain their council position by being an anti-bin tax campaigner will have a short life on the council. It's an issue that's well past its sell-by date."

Sinn Féin councillor Daithí Doolan said the bin charge is still very much a live issue. "We will be voting against the estimates because they contain the bin charge and particularly because there is a 5 per cent increase in the charge. We have consistently voted against the charge."

If the council fails to pass the budget it faces dissolution by Minister for the Environment Dick Roche.