Sir, - I note that Dublin Corporation and Dunlaoghaire-Rathdown County Council are running a joint television advertising campaign (presumably at considerable expense) to convince those "defaulters" who have not paid the contentious local service charges to do so. I find this ironic.
When a specific refuse collection charge was introduced by Dunlaoghaire-Rathdown County Council, within whose sphere of activities I have the misfortune to live, I paid up with alacrity.
Almost immediately, what had hitherto been an impeccably efficient service began to fall apart. As a result I have received only 31 out of a possible 46 collections this year, the most recent on September 28th, or almost eight weeks ago!
If we are to draw a logical lesson from this, may we assume that a water charge (if re-introduced) will result in a drought and that the introduction of its almost inevitable corollary, a sewage disposal charge, will see us wading around in several feet of faecal matter? - Yours, etc.,
Adrian J. English, Glenageary, Co Dublin.