Protests stop bin collections at 50,000 homes

About 50,000 households did not have their rubbish collected yesterday due to protests in the Dublin area against bin charges…

About 50,000 households did not have their rubbish collected yesterday due to protests in the Dublin area against bin charges.

All seven depots were blockaded by protesters but bin trucks in the South Dublin and Fingal areas did make collections later in the day.

Meanwhile, two women appeared in Dublin District Court yesterday afternoon on charges relating to the blockades.

Ms Jessica Jones (25) from Terenure and Ms Sylvia Hume (50) from Tallaght were arrested after gardaí began to move protesters away from the gates of the Ballymount bin lorry depot.

READ MORE

They were remanded on bail to appear on October 22nd. A condition of their bail is that they do not involve themselves in protest during this period.

Meanwhile, Dublin City Council has confirmed that two of those jailed for defying High Court orders to desist from protesting about refuse charges do not have to pay the charges.

Certain people are eligible for waivers if they are in low-paid jobs, unemployed or experiencing hardship.

Relatives of those in prison said their entitlement to a waiver was irrelevant, as they were protesting on a point of principle.

The rubbish collections situation in the Dublin area yesterday was:

South Dublin County Council:

Bin trucks began leaving the South Dublin County Council depot at 1.30 p.m. yesterday, following the arrest of two protesters.

Of the 14,000 bins due for collection, a council spokesman said a sizeable portion of these were collected, and the remainder would be collected today.

He encouraged people whose bins were not collected in the past two days to leave them out for collection today.

Of the 75,000 households in this area, about 75 per cent have paid their bin charges, according to the council.

The council saw a major upsurge in payments in recent weeks, with more than €2 million received from householders in the past fortnight.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council:

Some 12,500 households in the Merrion, Booterstown and Blackrock areas did not have a collection on Tuesday and a similar number of homes went without collection in the Killiney, Ballybrack, Shankill and Little Bray areas yesterday.

The council says it has collected refuse charges from more than 90 per cent of its 65,000 households.

It said it took in more than €1.3 million in last-minute payments in one week and has suspended its "no payment, no collection" policy to give it time to process the flood of cash, a spokeswoman said.

Dublin City Council:

No rubbish collections were made. About 35,000 households were affected by the protest yesterday, while 30,000 households were affected on the previous day. There are 167,000 households in this area and about 80 per cent of them pay the bin tax, according to Dublin City Council.

Fingal County Council:

While this area has the strongest associations with the anti-bin charge protests, its bin collections have suffered the least disruption in recent days.

The council's bin lorries were not prevented from collecting and the number of households which have not had a collection since the dispute began on September 10th is now 200, down from 800 last Friday.

The council believes 90 per cent of its 65,000 households are complying with the bin charges. It sells tags instead of implementing an annual charge and says that 70 per cent of its householders now put bins out only once a fortnight to save on tags.

Some 25 per cent of waiver applications in September came from the Swords area, and 45 percent from the Dublin 15 area, the political bases of Ms Claire Daly and Mr Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party respectively.