€3.50 per child water tax

bin the bill

Tens of thousands of litres of water leak from the mains water to the ground water every day. Children sit in drafty prefab rooms in need of repair, FF/GP/PD govt give nowhere near the cap grant they promised in May ‘07 and class sizes promised to INTO in April have not happened.  What does the government do in kind, tells schools they have to pay local authority water bills. I am sick of funding a broken service from outside the system (fees! Cake Sales etc). Not content to sit on the side lines and moan I joined my childrens (x3 one school)  school board of management and started a 4 year term in December ‘07. I aim not to be quite about it. These bills have to go and the government may follow them into the bin.

Indo says

The Government faces a major new storm after it imposed a €3.50 water levy on thousands of primary pupils.

And in quietly slipping out the latest ’stealth tax’ announcement last night, it immediately triggered widespread anger among parents and teachers.

BreakingNews.ie reports today

Schools simply do not have the money to pay the planned water bills, according to primary school principals.

The Irish Primary Principals Network has protested that the new flat-rate water-charges being introduced by the Government are unfair.

Under the plan schools will have to pay €3.50 per pupil for water services this year and €4 in 2009.

A metered system will then be introduced and schools will have to pay the full cost for water use.

The Government claims it is a necessary part of the EU legislation and Minister Mary Hanafin says our schools have to meet EU water conservation levels.

recorded off Atlantic bird 3 © OPW

A field full of bricks? who knows, the council never checked, when i was growing up in the area it was a marsh, a swamp and an illegal dump. For all we know the dumping could be asbestos dumping like what happened down the road on the N32.

Now it remains zoned amenity land thanks to the efforts of the local community, residents associations & community sports groups and the socialist party locally who saved it from rezoning in the county development plan 2005 – 2011. Plans are underway to rezone it again by means of a variation to the dev plan.

please forgive the photo quality but all i had was a 1.2mp camera and the surveyors with staff were on site a few weeks back. I have recorded a piece for radio about this site. Its due to broadcast December 3rd but you can hear it now below.

While not fully explored here there are other issues regarding the glut of housing stock in the County, the amount of already rezoned land that will take this development and the amount of mixed type infill that has already happened in the Baldoyle area.

audio recorded for future use on enviro on Near 90 FM

“I am only a child, Yet I know that if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this would be. In school you teach us not to fight with others, to work things out, to respect others, to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures, to share, not be greedy. Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do? You grownups say you love us, but I challenge you, please, to make your actions reflect your words.” Severn Suzuki

“You only pay for what you throw away”

Swords based Socialist Party Councillor Clare Daly Chairperson of the Fingal Anti-Bin Tax Campaign has slammed the proposed introduction of a new flat charge for environmental services, linked to the extension of the green and brown bin service.

* FINGAL ANTI-BIN TAX CAMPAIGN WILL VIGOROUSLY OPPOSE THIS DOUBLE TAX

Councillor Daly said, “After six years of propaganda from Fingal County Council to establish the tag system for the collection of the grey bin, they have now dropped the sham environmental cover and moved to charging directly for recycling facilities also.

All of the statements from Council management and the pro-bin tax councillors when the charge was originally brought in, that it wouldn’t rise, that it had nothing to do with generating extra taxation but was about encouraging people to recycle, have now been exposed for what they were – TOTAL AND UTTER BLATANT FALSEHOODS.”

She continued, “The Fingal Anti-Bin Tax Campaign has been absolutely vindicated in the stand that we took opposing that charge. Not only has the charge increased massively every year, but now the Council’s own catch-phrase has been shown up as a con. Residents will remember the Council’s slogan “You only pay for what you throw away”, and all the nonsense that if people recycled the charge would be negligible. The new proposals would mean an average household based on leaving out the grey bin fortnightly, as having paying a bin tax of €300 per annum. This is an absolute disgrace.”

Councillor Daly said, “The bin tax has always been about generating extra revenue for the Council against the backdrop of falling percentages of government support. Tens of thousands of new taxpayers have moved into Fingal County Council over the past 5-10 years, yet the amount of funding from central government equates to only 13%.

The introduction of a bin tax has made waste big business the private operators are earning millions from the present situation while PAYE taxpayers and pensioners are levied on the double. Meanwhile, while recycling has increased, the actual amount of waste per person has also increased during the lifetime of the charge.”

She concluded, “This debacle will only be halted through the elimination of a direct charge and the reinstatement of waste collection as a public service. We will vigorously oppose the introduction of this new tax by every means possible, starting at the Council Estimates meeting next Tuesday.

caught live on community radio Near FM, john haughton is on air as Fingal County Council subbies fell the trees of Stapolin, he takes me live on air before the sig tune fades and the sound of shredding begins. Hear the MP3 below. Thanks to Near FM for the recording.

John Gormley TD Minister for Environment is rethinking the sweetie deal Dick Roche TD gave the chewing gum industry. The fact remains that chewing gum causes the chewing gum problem but having seen a pack of chewing gum discarded on the ground as litter I can’t help but agree that in order for the gum to become the pavement sticking litter we must chew it, masticate it to make it sticky. So humans who chew & drop are also to blame. They can pay more for the item by allow a tax on it or they can cop on and discard it carefully. BTW cigarette end discards are greater in number as littering offences than gum drops.

Bournemouth Council UK came up with a novel idea, chewing gum boards. Taking that one step further with the agreement of object of peoples disgust ‘the politicians’ at large; chewers could be influenced to stick their gum on the face of a cause celeb politico

While on the subject of politics 400 meters north of the old Tayto factory on the Malahide road is a Left Wing Govt. No Thanks – PD election poster – FINE THEM DCC!

Eamon Ryan’s website is a tad outa date. He is a minister now not a mere spokesperson.

Perhaps they could recycle the election posters by bye law, gum sticking prohibited for 10 days prior to election, rest of the time the boards are for gum. This is how it is done on the continent, election fly posting is sanctioned on special boards.

japan france netherlands in china its one party one poster and look at the capitalists swarm that growth problem.

first here 16/3/07 ~ irish sun editorial 16/march/2007 “like it or not, globalisation the free market and fossil fuels are the forces that will do most to deliver rising living standards for the world’s poorest”

ok so globalisation the free market = capitalism has done what for the worlds poor? created the largest divide between people and capital, or put locally can a young person get a house? no. The Sun are on a different wavelength to the rest of us. Globalisation spreads equality to the third world, the equality to be exploited like the working poor in the rest of the world. globalisation the free market has done LESS for the worlds poor than Band Aid and that was a sticking plaster. Capitalisms addiction to fossel fuel means that third world countries will find them self at war for oil with rich nations. Stick to big brother house coverage, its what your good at in the Sun, leave world climate debate and the economy to the people who know and care.

as seen on 1W 11463Mhz SR6075 FEC 7/8

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