Republican News · Thursday 16 January 2002

Dublin's day of reckoning

As the crisis in Dublin's City Hall approaches a climax this week, Sinn Féin Dublin City Councillor Larry O'Toole has called for all correspondence between City Manager John Fitzgerald and the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Martin Cullen, to be made public immediately.

In the last few weeks, the four Sinn Féin councillors have found themselves leading the protest against the unfair charges. The Council will hold a final meeting today, Thursday, to discuss the book of estimates. The Minister has threatened to dissolve the council on this date if a budget is not agreed.

"Over the last number of weeks we have seen growing pressure on members of Dublin City Council to vote for the Estimates or see the Council dissolved and replaced by unelected and unaccountable Commissioners," said Larry O'Toole.

The Sinn Féin councillor believes that such a move would "fundamentally undermine local democracy and is no better than the actions of the British government in collapsing the political institutions in the north against the wishes of the people".

Larry is also calling for correspondence between the City Manager and the Minister and all the parties in the Council to be more transparent. "Bully boy tactics and threats have no place in the political life of this city and there is growing concern that once again a sordid back room deal, not in the interests of the people of Dublin, is about to be done," he said. "It is for this reason that Sinn Féin is calling for all correspondence in relation to the matter to be made public so that ordinary Dubliners are fully informed as to what is going on behind their backs."

Larry has insisted that Sinn Féin remains absolutely opposed to bin charges as a solution to the waste management problems of Dublin and insisted that "we are committed to having them overturned".