Some rubbish bags left uncollected

Bags of household rubbish have been left uncollected on a number of Dublin streets in the first week of the city council's new pay-by-use refuse collection scheme.

The council has this week introduced a new zero-tolerance policy on household waste, refusing to collect rubbish bags that do not have prepaid tags attached to them.

However, the system has already run into difficulty, with householders in some areas of the city claiming they have been unable to buy prepaid tags locally and hundreds more, who are entitled to a waiver, not having received their free tags.

The city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, admitted there were teething problems with the system, but said the council was endeavouring to sort these out as quickly as possible.

"It is a new system, so there will be hiccups, but you can be assured these problems will be sorted out and where it is our problem we will accept that and deal with it."

However, he warned that householders not entitled to a waiver who continued to default on the charges would not have their waste collected.

"People who are due to pay and have not should be advised that the game is up," he said.

Some 500 to 600 householders in the East Wall area of the city who are entitled to have the waste charge waived say they have not received tags from the council.

Local representatives say that householders in the East Wall, Ringsend, Stoneybatter and Grangegorman areas were unable to buy the €5 tags because no local post offices and few shops were supplying them.

A large number of householders were also unaware of the new tag scheme, councillors said.

"I've had a rake of calls from people who are entitled to waivers and didn't get tags, people who are probably entitled, but don't know how to go about it and people who just didn't know this system was coming in," Cllr Dermot Lacey (Labour) said.

An amnesty for householders who did not tag their bags this week would give the council time to rectify its problems, he said.

"In a whole lot of areas bins weren't collected and, apart from the withdrawal of the service, that's a problem in itself. It creates a huge credibility problem for the new service, especially when there are a lot of people willing to pay."

In the Stoneybatter area only one shop was supplying tags, Cllr Aodhan O'Riordan (Labour) said.

"There is a very poor level of information on the scheme, and people are finding it very confusing. Only six tagged bags were left out in the East Wall area, and there are entire roads where the rubbish has just been left on the streets. It's a complete mess."

Extra tags had been delivered to shops in the affected areas over the last two days, Mr Fitzgerald said, and a second refuse collection would be made in the East Wall area today.

Meanwhile, a group opposing waste charges, the Campaign Against Service Charges, is to hold nationwide meetings in the next few weeks to organise opposition to the new bin charge.