Madam, - The anti-bin-charges campaign is both undemocratic and dishonest. It is undemocratic because the will of the majority is being thwarted. People who have paid bin charges are being prevented from having their bins emptied.
Madam, - The anti-bin-charges campaign is both undemocratic and dishonest. It is undemocratic because the will of the majority is being thwarted. People who have paid bin charges are being prevented from having their bins emptied.
It is dishonest to label bin charges "double taxation" as if there was only one other type of taxation. There are many types, both direct and indirect, and a charge for waste disposal is among the fairer ones.
Services, be they waste management, health care, education or whatever, have to be paid for - by us. It is true that if the Government were to pay city and county Councils the grants from central funds promised in 1977 on the abolition of domestic rates, at a comparable level to what they would now be receiving from domestic rates, there would be no need for bin charges. However, if the Rate Support Grant was increased to that level, our other taxes would have to be raised! Moreover,funding Councils from central funds is not necessarily the ideal solution.
Direct local taxation would give councils freedom to provide services as required by individual circumstances and makes them accountable to the people who pay the taxes.
I suggest that those who are campaigning against bin charges should direct their energies to the question of cuts in the Jobs Initiative and Community Employment schemes. These cuts really do affect those most in need in our society in very many ways. - Yours, etc.,
ÚNA UÍ LACHTNÁIN, Seafield Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin 3.