Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

If the Taoiseach were a football manager and the Cabinet a team, I would strongly advise the manager to rest the team because the players must be worn out from kicking cans down the road. Between water, abortion and now refuse collection, what else is the Government putting off for a year or two? It must be worn out since it took over.

I want to recall a few memories from my political life that are very relevant to the debate. The Socialist Party and many others on the left were actively involved in the campaign against the introduction of bin charges, something the Government might recall. Several myths were trotted out about bin charges at the time. In September 2003, the top one was that one would only pay for what one threw away. The Minister might remember that slogan because the Government of the time took out very expensive advertisements to tell everyone this. When waste charges were introduced, people did not pay for what they threw away.

Another argument we had thrown at us were that the charges were only €3, €5 or whatever. It was a relentless tirade. The establishment and media, which are generally from a certain milieu, showed the usual disconnect from working class life and hardship they displayed in the water charges campaign. To them, €5 was nothing and they asked what the problem was. We now see the problem.

I was sent bills by woman who is now paying €93 for eight bin lifts, which is outrageous and extortionate. The Minister is freezing the charges, but pensioners have asked me on my Facebook page what is being asked of them because they cannot pay. The Minister can kick this can down the road, but we obviously need to return to a system where refuse collection is fully public.

Another myth was peddled by the Labour Party in particular. It claimed the Socialist Party led to the privatisation of bin collections. This argument was trotted out on Twitter over the weekend, something with which I will deal in the moment. I remind the Minister how isolated and vilified those of us who fought the charges were. We had two elected representatives, one Deputy and one councillor, who were sent to jail for a month because of their refusal to abandon their communities who opposed charges. In Dublin, 21 people were sent to jail, along with many others in other counties and a pregnant woman. The media and political establishment accused all these people of being lunatics, on the fringes and polluters, even though, as was said, people in this country now recycle more than the EU average. They have nothing to show for it.

We were constantly asked what our problem was because the charges were only a few bob. We now see what an absolute encroachment into people's budgets this has become. I commend the bravery of the people who pointed out what would happen. Unfortunately, we lost the campaign, as the Government liked to remind us when we fought the water charges. When we lost the campaign, the charges were bedded down and rose relentlessly and all of the service were privatised. It did not take too long for the greedy private companies to engage in a race to the bottom in terms of the poor unfortunate workers or to go offshore, which practically every one of them has done. Greyhound, Mr. Binman, Oxigen, Panda and City Bin all have offshore accounts in the Isle of Man and other places.

I want to provide a few historical facts, in particular for the edification of the Labour Party, on the privatisation of bin services. An article in The Irish Times in October 2003, which was the very month bin charges were fought in Fingal and were beginning to be fought elsewhere in Dublin, reported that more than half of the county and town councils in the entire country had privatised refuse collections. Meath County Council was among the first to do so in 1990. I do not know what the Labour Party thinks. Perhaps it thinks we have a major influence on society, but we were not present on any of those councils. Among the councils that privatised their waste collection before bin charges were introduced were Sligo, Drogheda, Wicklow, Clare and Galway. I do not have time to go on.

The last regions where waste collection was privatised were those where people fought them the most, namely, Dublin. Of course, the Dublin county managers all got together, ditched the service and sold it off. As I said, the charges have risen relentlessly. I hope this history lesson is of some benefit to the Labour Party as it goes about its propaganda campaign. I hope it will listen to the anguish of people in terms of the drain the charges have become.

See this speech in context