Republican News · Thursday 9 January 2003

Dublin City Council in crisis as councillors reject charge increase

BY JOANNE CORCORAN

Dublin City Council is in crisis this week as it faces dissolution for failing to ratify this year's budget but Sinn Féin Councillor Christy Burke is adamant that he and the other Sinn Féin councillors will not give way to the threats from the city manager.

The 52 councillors were obliged to agree a budget for 2003 by the end of December. Problems arose but a majority of councillors have refused to ratify the budget because of a large hike in bin charges included in it. Fianna Fáil Environment minister Martin Cullen said on Tuesday that if the councillors do not agree on a budget by 16 January, he will dissolve it and hand the administration of its affairs to a commissioner.

'This is an affront to democracy in this city and everybody knows it," said Burke. "Firstly the council shouldn't be asked to run this city by the government without adequate finances. Then, when we are planning the budget for the New Year, the city manager decides to raise bin charges as a source of finance, when a number of councillors, the Sinn Féin members included, were vehemently opposed to the introduction of the charges in the first place."

The council is predicting that it will need a budget of €700 million to manage the city this year. The proposed hike in bin charges, of €36, is expected to fill a €16 million gap in estimated revenue this year. The City Council claims that it has had to borrow up to €20 million to pay wages, because there is no budget available.

"If it doesn't stop here then there's no knowing what they'll introduce next," said Sinn Féin Councillor Dessie Ellis. "Charlie McCreevy has already said that he backs the reintroduction of water charges. I don't want to think what basic necessities the council is planning on charging for next if it gets its way with the bin charges."

He warned that some councillors, who will be anxious not to lose their positions as local authority members, will probably agree to the budget but pledged that Sinn Féin councillors would not fall into this category.

Christy Burke is in constant contact with the City Manager, John Fitzgerald, and has asked him to ask the minister not to exercise his powers of dissolution but to provide proper and adequate funding for the running of the city instead.

"We have suggested a number of alternatives for raising money for the council which we have put before the manager, such as rates on government buildings, and we are hoping that he will consider these for a more agreeable budget."

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown council is also in the process of debating a rise in bin charges to subsidise its annual budget. The council is to vote on a 65% increase that would bring the charges to €330 per year. Some councillors have already expressed their intention to vote against the 2003 budget.