The bin-tax protest is a campaign for taxation justice, writes an unrepentant Joe Higgins TD, who this morning leaves Mountjoy Prison after a one-month sentence
Following my release today from Mountjoy Jail, with my colleague, Cllr Clare Daly, 12 courageous anti-bin-tax campaigners are still imprisoned for participating in peaceful protests.
The Government and the councils precipitated the wave of protest when they implemented the outrageous policy of leaving uncollected the refuse bins of tens of thousands of compliant taxpayers whose various forms of tax have historically funded this service.
With typical arrogance the Government believed it could walk over the objections of a very substantial cohort of PAYE taxpayers, including contributory pensioners, in the same way it introduced a plethora of stealth taxes to burden working people in the last 12 months.
The obvious way to proceed rationally now would be to suspend the non-collection policy and to let the debate on the bin taxes continue, including discussions between the trade unions and the Government.
Sections of the media have joined with Government Ministers to denigrate the campaign. The Government's loyal opposition, otherwise known as Fine Gael, has joined the chorus. Little wonder to find this party dying on its feet in Dublin.
At this stage even the gutless Fianna Fáil backbenchers in Dublin must realise the real extent of opposition among working people, a far cry from the pathetic propaganda claim of the Minister for the Environment that a mere 150 people are involved. Incidentally, we had the same denigration of the mass campaign against water charges in the 1990s.
The rapid jailing of protesting taxpayers exposes the nauseating double standards infecting the political and judicial establishment. Ansbachermen and corrupt councillors, exposed years ago, seem immune from prosecution.
Who from the boardrooms of the major banks will be sent to jail for organising the most widespread organised tax evasion scam ever seen in the State?
Ordinary working people in Dublin strongly resist the bin tax because they know it is the thin edge of a very wide wedge. It would rapidly reach the €400 to €500 a year demanded in areas around the country. Then privatisation would beckon as has happened in 41 of the 77 county, city and town councils.
The OECD now wants water charges reintroduced starting at €200 per household per year. This, added to the bin tax, would see every household facing local charges heading towards €1,000 per year, an intolerable burden for many who would not qualify for waivers. In reality this would be a parallel tier of local taxation for which the Government would pretend to have no responsibility.
Meanwhile massive tax cuts are showered on big business whereby €600 million will be handed back each year from now on as a result of the last two Budgets, funds that could revolutionise waste management and assist many other hard-pressed services.
Then there are the multimillionaire tax exiles benefiting from derisory taxation levels. Included here is the businessman who pocketed €300 million profit from being given the State's second mobile-phone licence for a minuscule fee and, having organised to become a tax exile, claimed to be exempt from the €50 million tax that would otherwise be paid on these profits! We won't even mention the stud farm millionaires who can buy Premiership football clubs with their tax-free fees.
The Minister for the Environment has just launched an apocalyptic waste advertisement designed, not only to justify relentlessly rising bin taxes but also to blackmail householders into believing they are responsible for a waste crisis by being the greatest producers of waste. This ad is fraudulent through and through and should be withdrawn forthwith.
The recently published Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Waste Database 2001 found that households accounted for only 15 per cent of what went to landfill. (Roughly 1.25 million tons out of 8.25 million.)
This propaganda ad is equally fraudulent in pretending that the Government is serious about an environmentally sound waste-management policy. In fact, its 6½ years in office have been a dismal and demonstrable failure on the issue, not the least on recycling.
The EPA survey found that out of 302,062 tons of paper disposed of by households an incredible 279,833 tons (92.6 per cent) went to landfill. From commercial outlets, Repak notwithstanding, 358,276 tons of paper disposed of (71.3 per cent) went to landfill.
The situation with glass is just as shocking. From households 55,214 tons of glass (70.9 per cent) went to landfill, while commercial outlets including pubs and hotels sent 53,078 tons (72.3 per cent) to landfill.
This means that if recycling facilities for paper and glass were made accessible to every community, and made mandatory, at one stroke the total amount of waste going to landfill from households and commercial outlets could be reduced by more than a third, a massive 37 per cent.
A government that was serious would do the following: through the local authorities and other agencies have installed a comprehensive recycling infrastructure to cover the entire country by a combination of door-to-door collection of recyclable and readily available "bring centres".
With such an infrastructure the local authorities would then be entitled to introduce bylaws to prohibit a single glass jar or sheet of paper going to landfill. A system of regular spot-checks could ensure compliance in case there continued to be a small minority who were not prepared to implement their environmental responsibility.
The Government allowed Irish Glass Bottle, the only recycling facility, to close last year. It refuses to use its strong powers to compel a drastic reduction in the excessive packaging that householders are forced to deal with at retail outlets.
Polystyrene trays continue to wrap fresh vegetables, a few sausages and even pastries. Little wonder that hysterical ads are needed to throw waste in the eyes of decent taxpayers in an attempt to divert attention from a litany of failures.
Campaigners against the bin tax are strongly committed to an environmentally sound waste-management policy. This and their understanding that the campaign against the bin tax is a campaign for taxation justice mean that their resolve is unbreakable.