The more clued-in sections of the public were sickened by the hypocritical chorus of condemnation from Drogheda’s local Fianna Fail and Fine Gael political representatives following the announcement by the Panda private refuse collection company that they were to “do away with” their tag charging system, thereby increasing significantly (by stealth) refuse charges to a significant section of their customer base.
Wasn’t it these same politicians, or their party political predecessors, who introduced refuse collection charges In Drogheda (in early 2000) in the first place, turning a free-at-the-point-of-delivery municipal public service into a consumer commodity. This in turn opened the door for private waste collectors, like Panda, to “get a piece of the action” and in the process make waste incineration (Carranstown) a very viable potential private business enterprise.
Not once, since Drogheda Borough Council’s municipal domestic collection was shut down,
has even the local Labour Party demanded that this service be reinstated, an indication of just how pro-business and pro free-market they have become. If the former Drogheda Corporation bin collection service was reinstated Cllr. Paul Bell would not need to organise meaningless, phoney, photo-opportunity protests. Indeed had the Labour Party backed the town’s anti-bin tax campaign (DRABCAP) in our “no pay” stance, private waste operators, and incineration companies, would have quickly realised that their was no money, or profit, to be made from collecting and burning domestic waste.
Maybe Cllr. Bell and the Labour Party will redeem themselves by proposing a budget heading in next year’s Borough Council estimates for the reinstatement of the Council’s municipal domestic refuse collection service – there again, maybe pigs might fly!
