The leader of the Labour Party Mr Ruairi Quinn TD has denied claims that an interparty pact led to a decision made last night by Dublin City Council to introduce a yearly refuse-collection charge of between £65 and £95.
The independent TD Mr Tony Gregory accused Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour party of conspiring to introduce the charges and said the three Labour party councillors who were expelled from the party after breaking ranks to vote in favour of the motion were ‘sacrificial lambs’.
The vote came after the Minister for the Environment Mr Noel Dempsey had placed a deadline on the council to adopt the Budget estimates for 2001 in which the issue of service charges had proved highly contentious.
The motion was passed by 25 votes to 22 in favour of introducing the yearly charge.
The main area of contention was the plan to introduce refuse charges of up to £150 per household for a wheelie-bin service. City manager Mr John Fitzgerald has said the charges were necessary to meet the cost of the corporation’s targets to recycle 60 per cent of its waste.