Three women, including a grandmother, were jailed by the High Court yesterday in the ongoing campaign in Dublin against the waste collection charge. Fourteen people have now been imprisoned arising from the protest.
Two of those jailed yesterday were given 14-day sentences, while the third woman, who has a young child, was given a seven-day sentence.
Mr Justin McQuade, for the three women, said they were refusing to give an undertaking to abide by a court order made last month restraining interference with a Dublin City Council refuse truck operating at Mount Tallant Avenue, Terenure, Dublin.
Miss Justice Carroll rejected an application on behalf of the three defendants to impose a fine rather than a custodial sentence. She accepted they had refused to move out of the path of the refuse truck. A fine was not a deterrent and a prison sentence for breach of the order was appropriate, she added.
The judge said that if the defendants gave an undertaking to the court, "that will be the end of it", but they were deciding to go to prison in lieu of giving an undertaking to the court.
Before yesterday's cases were dealt with, Miss Justice Carroll said that if there was any disturbance in court, she would clear it.
She said that what had happened on Thursday last, when 10 protesters were jailed, had been disgraceful.
There was no trouble in court during the hearing of yesterday's cases but after the three women had been sentenced and were leaving the court, there was clapping and cheering from their supporters. The judge said she would rise until order was restored and she left the bench for a time.
The two women who were sentenced to 14 days each were Ms Christine Heffernan (60), a grandmother and mother of six, who has a disability allowance, Mount Tallant Avenue, Terenure, and Ms Bríd Smith (45), single, who is a full-time carer for her 76-year-old mother, O'Hogan Road, Ballyfermot.
Ms Karen Heffernan (33) - a daughter of Ms Christine Heffernan - who has two children, the younger aged 14 months, was jailed for seven days.