Liars and Cheats

3 Labour Councillors voted for the charges, including the leader of the Labour group on the Council, Sean Kenny. The Labour Party’s move to remove the whip from these 3 councillors (Kenny, Eamonn O’Brien and Anthony Creevey) is a joke and shows the contempt in which they hold the voters of Dublin. Are we supposed to believe that it is a pure coincidence that the 3 will not be contesting Dáil seats in the General Election? So when the election comes along, the Labour candidates will all be able to profess their opposition to the bin tax, despite having connived in their implementation.

Sinn Fein too have shown their contempt for their electoral mandate. Despite professed opposition to the charges - and indeed jostling by their representatives to lead the campaign against them in some areas of the city - 2 of the 4 SF councillors didn’t show up to vote. Again we’re supposed to believe that this was a pure coincidence. A more likely explanation is that SF wanted the profile associated with council seats from which to launch their push for Dáil seats and couldn’t therefore risk the Council being abolished, so they simply decided to ignore their promises to the voters. Or was it that Bertie Ahern asked Gerry Adams for a favour? After all Bertie’s brother is Lord Mayor and would have been out of a job if the Corpo. was abolished. No one should be surprised anyway. After all, Sinn Féin councillors have actually voted for bin charges in Sligo.

As anarchists we’re not surprised of course that politicians can’t be trusted. Residents in Dublin communities - and elsewhere- should tell the representatives of these parties where to get off when they come along pretending to be against the charges.

Sean Maguire