Dublin City Council Estimates - Groundhog Day

Fianna Fail never fails to find dummies

Last night Dublin City council went through its annual charade of will they - won't they. (We always know they will). After loud rumblings that the estimates would not be passed, they were. Again. In order for them to pass, Fine Gael allowed a free vote and the Greens after receiving assurances also voted for them.
Can somebody from the Greens and in the name of open democracy, please let us know what those assurances were.

(Apologies for posting IT article but its pay per view)
Dublin City budget to see 23% bin charge rise

Dublin City councillors have voted to accept a budget for next year that will see a 23 per cent rise in bin charges from January.

Some 25 councillors voted to accept the Council's estimates for the 2004 budget and 24 councillors voted against. The vote came at the end of a heated three-hour meeting at city hall where Fine Gael, Labour, the Green Party, Sinn Féin and Independents expressed reservations about the amount of funding they had been given.

Labour councillor Mr Kevin Humphreys condemned the budget and said the proposal to increase bin charges by 23 per cent was totally unacceptable. The Green Party warned it would vote against the budget unless serious deficiencies in the city's waste-management service were addressed.

After the meeting was briefly adjourned, however, the Green Party agreed to vote, along with Fianna Fáil, for the budget. It includes a package of new waste charges, with charges for a 240-litre bin increasing to €195 and for a 140-litre bin to €110 a year.