Beyond waste who's problem is it?

national | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Sunday August 27, 2006 23:55 by jim travers - anti bin tax jimtravers at eircom dot net

After publishing an article called "Waste who's problem is it" on the Rathdown/Dunlaoghaire web site , I have looked at what has changed since I first published my views back in 2003. Has the Luas system contributed to traffic congestion and has local authorities made it easier for everybody to become environmnetally concious without having to pay for the privlidge of helping them secure yet another stealt tax without doing anything for it.

Funny, as a learner when I wrote this article back in 2003 i never thought that a lot of what I said would come to fruition.The Luas has caused greater traffic congestion, to a stage where Dublin City Council is seriously considering congestion charges in order to help resolve the
problem.Motorists see road tax and fuel costs going up as government turns on the same motorists and blames them for the increase in congestion. We still find politicians considering building a Metro system which once again will cause untold inconvenience to businesses, commuters and motorist as a rail system is put in place at emense public cost purely because the airport needs to be connected to the city.If anybody in political power with the slightest amount of intelligence could understand one basic fundimental truth, Dublin Airport is positioned in the wrong place with regards to an ever expanding Dublin city. As I said in the past, the Luas system should have been constructed to cater for motorists and communters outside the greater Dublin commuter belt and as far away as Newbridge in County kildare. Just think of the reduction in vehicular traffic on the Naas Road and that does not take into account the knock on effect on other roads adjoing this main transport roadway in the country. Link the system towards Mulhuddart and Enfield and we have a massive reduction in vehicles using all the major roads into the city.It would have been far better to posponethe Luas system and the proposed Metro system in favour of a system that allows our current public transport system to cater for Dublin in a zoned system of service and use a light rail system to move people quickly from emerging developing areas in and out of the city.Build a new airport beyond the boundaries of Dublin city that will provide the Airport Authority with the potential to grow and expand.Build a light rail system that would link the airport to the city both north and south.Provide Dublin Bus with the financial assistance in order to increase its capacity to fully service all outer city areas beyond the boundaries of Dublin and covering all of Kildare.
What they done with the Luas was to provide an additional mode of public transport for areas that were already serviced by a public transport system. What the relevant authorities needed to do was to help Dublin Bus improve the ways in which it could move people as quickly as possible in and out of the city without any major delays. QBC's is one answer to the problem but there are nmany others which stiffle Dublin Bus in its ability to provide the public with a swift reliable service it so despirately wants to deliver.Politicians from all political parties with their vote gathering, ill thought out ideas which appeal to the public but are not in the long term interest of the public are thrown around to the detriment of a service which needs to be improved and not destroyed.

Local authorities made a hash of the new speed limits that went from MPH to KPH, as motorist were faced with travelling on country roads at 100KPH and then forced to drive at 60KPH on main roads and well lit dual carraigeways in order for the Gardai to catch them for not driving at speeds that are totally unreasonable for the roads in which they were set. Its a revenue gathering exercise, where the integrity and professionalism of the Gardai is reduced to a revenue collection ploy that is controlled and dictated at the insistance of government ministers so that convictions can be seen on paper no matter what that crime is dressed up to be.Rank and file Gardai are frustrated at the inconsistancies in a wide range of laws and regulation,which they see as being flawed and open to public criticism.Its a joke, Gardai on the Naas Dual carraigeway stopping motorists for driving 10KPH over a speed limit, while at the same time taxis in the center of the city break ever rule of the road without any questions being asked by our political leaders or the Road Safety Authority as to why this section of society is allowed to flout safety standards while everybody else is penalised for their actions.It is evidently clear that our Gardai are loosing their ground in maintaining their position within the community as upholders of law and order for the benefit of everybody.
Its as simple as this, Joe Bloggs is an honest law abiding citizen who supports the Gardai and the work they are doing. Joe is driving down the Blessington dual carraigeway on a Sunday morning at 6.00am and is stopped by the Gardai for driving 10 KPH over the speed limit. Joe could accept his fate if only the logic behind the speed limit justified the road in which it was set. But Joe knows that he can drive down a narrow twisty lane anywhere else around the country and drive at speeds that make no sense of the speeds set on other major roads.Joe gets a fine and two penalty points but the Gardai get something that is not of their making (carrying out their orders)and may have serious reprocussions for the Gardai and society well into the future. The Gardai loose the support and respect from Joe because somebody in political authority did not try and think out the consequences of their actions before thay compelled the gardai to carry out these orders.We now find government ministers telling the Gardai to relax their checks on well lit main roads and not to be so trigger happy with the same checks.This does absolutely nothing for the morale and professionalism of the Gardai when it comes to the logical application of law enforcement.
Take a trip up or down Rathmines Road at any time of the day or night and try to comply with the new penalty point regulations introduced by Minister martin Cullen. yes, they are impossible to comply with because taxis and the rest stop anywhere as drivers are forced to cross continious white lines in order to proceed further. Now try the same on another road and a Garda will do you for crossing a continious white line. And this problem is seen throughout Dublin city and all other cities around the country. So why is it made an offence when motorist find it impossible to comply with the law.........revenue. Thursday,Friday, Saturday .the Road Safety Authority and the rules of the Road do not exist in the taxi community as the gardai are deliberately stepped down in order to cater for a vibrant business community.
We were told in the past that butter is bad for you, now it good for you. We were told any amount of alcohol is bad for you, now we are told one or two pints a day is good for your.We were also told that it was our social obligation to pay for our waste collection/recycling and disposal.We now find this obligation is being constantly changed and rejuggled, as local authorities try to find ways in which to charge consumers for something the local authorities know they were wrong to introduce in the first place.

Automotive Environmnetal Disposal (1999)
I personally submitted a report and plan for the establishment of an automotive environmnetal disposal network of dismantling/recycling centres around the country.
The then Minister for the Environment shrugged my plan.The Department refused to allow me attend a meeting (that was in their words, attended by all interested parties) so that I could present my proposals for consideration. The SIMI asked me for all the details in my report, rejuggled my proposals and presented them as their own. To date the car dismantling industry has developed a disposal system that bears no resemblence to the proposals that I proposed(EU Directive compliant)which would come as close as possible to that required under the EU Directive on Environmental Automotive Recycling and disposal.

We have seen a huge turn around by local authorities who have juggled and rejuggles their reasons as to why there should be bin charges.We were all told by the same councils that EU Directives required us as consumers to pay for the disposal of our household appliances, so we were hit with 40-100 Euro charges for the disposal and recycling of appliances that in reality were eventually destined for the dump. Now we have a system where we pay a small recycling charge which in reality is part of the purchase price of the appliance and in time will eventually be lost through product competition.What did I say back in 2003?
Learner Drivers and Road Safety
Nearly 10 years ago and as recently as five years ago I submitted a proposal to both the Minister for Transport and the the Minister for the Environment for a plan to tackle the problem of learner drivers, driving instructors and driving schools as well as a solution to resolve the increase in road carnage witnessed on our road at that time. The then minister for transport wrote back saying my proposal was NOVEL......thanks.....goodbye. Now we find minister Cullen attempting to introduce the same proposals I submitter so long ago as a mew direction in road safety.Very many people had died unnecessarily because the then minister thought my proposals NOVEL, but is now found to be acceptable by a current minister.I was not even asked to elaborate on my proposals or even given the opportunity as a concerned citizen to speak further about my ideas and proposals that would save lives.Talking about wooing the public with their new found proposals.

Over the past three to four years South Dublin County Council have refused to collect my bins because I refused to pay their bin charges on the grounds that it was unfair and an anti-environmnetal method of promoting public uninterest in the environment. I got debt collectors letters,threats of court action,threats of the damage they would cause to my credit ratings and well worded solicitors letters. I resisted them all and today I seperate all my waste in an effort to comply with something that South Dublin County Council wsay they promote but are unwilling to assist me in my efforts in being compliant. Its all about money and there is nothing like a local authority for taking as much as it can get out of anybody, with little thought or consideration to other peoples view point or principals. They squeeze and threaten small and medium size businesses in pursuit of exorbant rates and charges. They squander public money on junkets and hair brained ideas that change the price of a 10 Euro shovel to a shovel costing ten times as much.They refuse ordinary everyday families educational grant aid assistance because they deem the household earning in excess of what they see as acceptable but still they ask the same household for bin taxes and other related charges.

From a public health point of view, local authorities do not even consider never mind take into acount the problems that occur when food waste is stored by a resident before an adaquate amount of that waste justifies the cost in the disposal in a waste disposal facility.Massive amounts of food waste is being stored by residents who are forced by a local authorities blatent pursuit of profit over the health and welfare of Irish citizens. Talking about a ministers appeal to the business community in not being unpatriotic during the Ryder Cup event, he should preach the same words to those who unpartiotically pursue Irish citizens through the courts while at the same time bombard them with threatening letters in order to scare people into compliance. The Nazis I think were nothing towards our so called democratic institutions who allegidely operate in the interest of the public but find minimal support in the methods in which that interest is exercised. Welcome to Ireland of taxes on taxes on taxes.

Ballymount Civic Amenity Centre is yet another example of profit over environmental concerns. Their charges have gone up from six Euro to 12 Euro for the privlidge of being environmentally concious. When you look at the stupidity of the bin tax system you have to laugh at the whole local authority concept of environmnetal awareness and responsibility. For example, if I pay my bin tax then I can place all my waste into the grey bin and that waste goes into landfill..so much for being environmentally friendly. Now, if I seperate all my waste and deliver that waste to the relevant bring centres then I am reducing the waste going into landfill. I am then left with my food waste. To dispose of this waste (small amount compared to other waste)Balymount charge me 12 Euro in order to place that waste in a bin that will eventually go into landfill. So why should I bother going to a bring centre when I can place all the waste in bags and bring it to Ballymount where I pay to throw that waste into one bin and therefore not bother running around looking for bring centres.That waste in total will then go into landfill which is completely opposite to the whole trust of reducing landfill and being environmentally friendly.
This does not make sense when I as a concerned citizen find the process of effective and meaningful environmnetal compliance and disposal being diluted by the need to pay for one part of the overall waste.
Food waste is the lever by which both local authorities and the civic amenity centres extract finance from the public on the back of environmental issues. There is absolutely no reason that justfies the financial penalty levelled on people who take the time to dispose of their waste in a manner acceptable to the local authorities. It is greed and a reason why the bin tax campaign has been so succesful in its fight to scrap the charges. Local authorities have lost the belief that one and one makes two and not three.

There are people who will not pay local authority charges on the grounds of principal.
There are people who will pay because they are scared of local authority pressure and tactics.
There are people who will pay because they have been put in a corner with no visible way out.
Ther are people who pay because they want their waste collected but have little interest in environmental issues.
There are people who pay because they fear for their families health and wellbeing.
AND THEN THERE ARE LOCAL AUTHORITIES WHO WILL USE THEIR MUSTLE TO PLACE PEOPLE IN THESE SITUATIONS.
One thing is evidently certain, the vast majority of the public do not agree in principal to local authorities placing any form of charges on them. They see these charges as stealt taxes that have been thrusted upon them after they have already paid the state high levels of direct and indirect taxes. They view both government and local authorities as wasting and squandering public money that is not in the interest of the vast majority of Irish citizens.
The concept of local govenment is born out of a political desire to financially extract as much as possible from our people in the guise of democracy and a public mandate to do so.Nobody wants secondary charges that are pursued with military percision which leave our people exposed and vunerable because our political leaders see the public's gain as their financial loss.Is the state the people or is the state an entity onto itself whereby the people are only required to feed its apetite?
The bin tax protest is just one example where politicians have been see to be out of touch with the overwhelming majority of the people in Ireland. The bin tax protest is not just a Dublin protest, it is a protest that spans all of the twenty six counties of this country.It is a protest that
has exposed the problems and pressures ordinary everyday citizens are placed under by local authority demands and the ever increasing desire by private commercial waste collect and disposal companies to hold householders to ransom with the threat of refusal to collect unless their waste charges are paid.Local authorities also take their financial cut through their insistance of a simple sticker being placed on a bin before that bin is collected is nothing more than blatent extortion for somethin that is provided through a bin tag charge. Its like paying a security man at the door before you can go into the store to purchase a product or service. There again the whole services sector in Ireland is rampant with price fixing and overcharging.Purchase a tag,have your bin collected...where does the local authority come into the equasion when they charge you 80 or 200 Euro for that privlidge. Charging you for a sticker that can be increased as people become accustomed to paying for that privlidge while the waste collection company also increase their charges and the cycle starts all over again.
Its time to call a halt to all this insanity and waste of public money. In the rampant collection of vast sums of revenue that that the Celtic Tiger has generated for the government, nobody has asked or begged to ask the question about the so called children of the state that the so called toilet paper constitution is supposed to cherish? Government removed a basic school necessity for every child in the state and that was the sandwich, bun and milk service. They condemned parents to spilling out their hearts and their financial circumstances before the principal of the school deemed the child as a worthy cause for state support. Its time the state reintroduced this service which was a basic source of nutrition for very many children. In this Celtic Ireland society we still have children who go to bed at night malnurished and in need of sustinance. Celtic Tiger, cherishing all children of the state equally, providing educational opportunities for all but at the same time placing obsticles in the way so that the state saves at the expense of the child.Teenagers heading to England for an education because their Irish state does not want to know or support them, well possibly after they have completed a thesis on why they should be supported by the state.People waiting for up to twelve hours in A&E before they are seen by a doctor.

When the Celtic Tiger meets its end Ireland will be plunged into a state of social tension and racial unrest because political leaders did nothing to progressively steer its citizens towards a multi-racial tolerant society.This tension will only be seen when unemployment grows among naturally born Irish citizens and most espicially in working class areas.

So getting back to my original article way back in 2003, well the bin tax campaign is still alive and kicking despite a belief by many politicial representatives that this revolt would be crushed in a similar manner as the 1916 rebellion.
We are coming close to full circle wherby local authorities are being forced to concede to the overwhelming desire of people that local authority charges are excessive, unwanted and contrary to the interests of all the people in the state. They have brought attention upon themselves from people who now question their decisions and who otherwise would not have shown any interest in local authority business and practices. They have instilled in peoples minds a belief that local authorities are there for their own purposes and not for the people they are suppose to provide service and support.They have become entities in their own right.

Living in Ireland is difficult enough for the vast majority of our people without having our local authorities playing the landlord who evicts his tenants without any human consideration for the consequenes such actions will bring on those he exerted his power and authority.

It's everybody's duty to fight the bin tax because if the local authorities win this fight then there next plan of attack will be just around the corner.