Seanad debates

Tuesday, 21 June 2016

2:30 pm

Photo of David NorrisDavid Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The issue I wish to raise is bin charges. The major mistake made was providing for privatisation. It was an absolute disaster. We all know what happened in Italy. The Mafia controls the collection of rubbish. What did we see happen here? A while ago we had bin companies attack the lorries of others and burn them out in car parks. That is pretty close to the activities of the Mafia. The companies involved are not even registered in Ireland; they are registered in the Isle of Man and because of this we do not know whether they make a profit. We pay for the collection of bins through the bin tax; we pay for water through water rates; we pay for roads through road tax, but for what is the revenue from property tax used? I think it is used to pay off the gambling debts of the German and French banks. We now have a situation where, as we heard this morning, 86,000 people have had money taken from their pension payments and other sources of income without their consent to pay the property tax. Some 3,000 people were sent to the sheriff to have their goods distrained. That is appalling. This takes us back to the 19th century to rack-renting where if a peasant dared to improve his or her holding, the landlord shoved up the rent, which meant that he or she was punished. What is now being done is exactly the same.

Some 40 years ago I bought a house on North Great George's Street for £25,000. I have spent hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of euro on it. I started the North Great George's Street Preservation Society and rescued No. 35. I was involved in the transfer of ownership of many houses and although we rescued the street, what has been the result? We have been punished. The property tax has been increased, which is unspeakable. People should not be taxed on their homes. One's home should be inviolate. I said the same about mortgages, that there should be a Minister with responsibility for home security to make sure Irish citizens would be able to stay in their own homes.

I look forward to the debate tomorrow because there is an awful lot more to this issue; there are some very shady takeover deals between the companies involved. I do not believe they have been monitored properly by the authorities. The situation is appalling. It is part of a mass privatisation programme by the Government and I hope it will stopped in its tracks and that the process of privatisation can be reversed. If half a dozen companies can make a profit, I do not know why Dublin Corporation could not at least run it on an equal basis. Until recently in my area there were five or six refuse companies operating and every bloody day of the week we had bin lorries travelling up and down street at all times of the day and night. As I said, I look forward to tomorrow's debate, but I use the opportunity to call on the Order of Business for something to be done about this matter.

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