Plans to introduce refuse levy condemned

Sinn Féin and the Socialist Party have attacked the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, over his announcement that he plans to introduce a levy on all domestic collections by 2006.

Mr Cullen told The Irish Timesthat the fee, of around €4 or €5 per week, would serve as an "incentive for waste management" and dismissed claims that it was another form of taxation. "The real reason for doing this is to get people to recycle more," he said.

Mr Cullen said the Department of Environment has now received all regional waste management strategies, and they will be considered within the coming months.

A cover-up for the pathetic failure of successive Governments to invest in and implement radical policies for dealing with waste Mr Joe Higgins

However, Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Sinn Féin TD for Cavan/Monaghan, said the move was outrageous. "Once again the Government plans to make the householder and not the polluter pay," he said.

He said the Government had failed to implement a strategy to reduce waste output from manufacturers, the packaging and retail industries and the construction industry.

The Socialist Party TD for Dublin West, Mr Joe Higgins, described the proposal as "a cover-up for the pathetic failure of successive Governments to invest in and implement radical policies for dealing with waste".

He dismissed the levy as a substitute for effective waste management and vowed to oppose it.

Mr Ó Caoláin and Mr Higgins both cited the recent closure of the State’s only glass recycling plant - the Irish Glass Bottle company in Ringsend - as an example of the failure of the Government’s recycling strategy.

Mr Higgins added he and his colleague, Cllr Clare Daly, wrote to the minister today demanding action on securing the future of the Ardagh glass plant and its workers.