The Bin Tax and the Local Elections

dublin | bin tax / household tax / water tax | opinion/analysis

Friday June 25, 2004 14:33

by Stato the sado

The results of the Local Elections show that the Bin Tax is still a very real issue. In areas where Anti Bin Tax candidates ran serious campaigns the resulting first preference vote was excellent considering the lack of finance and the voluntary nature of those campaigns.

The results of the Local Elections show that the Bin Tax is still a very real issue. In areas where Anti Bin Tax candidates ran serious campaigns the resulting first preference vote was excellent considering the lack of finance and the voluntary nature of those campaigns. In the Dublin City Council area Joan Collins in Crumlin was the highlight, actually taking a seat but Brid Smith in Ballyfermot polled over 1,000 first preferences and Ciaran Perry in Cabra polled over 1,700 (Perry was within 90 votes of taking Bertie Ahern’s brothers supposedly ‘safe’ seat ). Mick Rafferty and Joe Mooney in North Inner City polled over 1,800 together. In Finglas John O’Neill polled over 800 first prefs while Dessie Ellis, who had a very high profile on the Bin Tax, topped the poll with nearly double the quota. In South Inner City Daithi Doolin, another Sinn Feiner who had a high profile on the Bin Tax, was elected with over 1,900 first prefs. Also in Ballyfermot, Vincent Jackson, who also opposes the Bin Tax, was elected with over 1,900 first prefs. Even those candidates who didn’t do the work but tried to use the issue polled a lot better than they usually do. Wingfield in Ballymun, Donohoe in SIC, Ryan in Ringsend and Brown in Artane all managed to break the 200 votes barrier!!!
It’s worth noting that in the light of a serious shift against the Government only Sinn Fein made significant gains. All the opposition parties who either supported the Bin Tax, Greens & Fine Gael, or who had some councillors support the charges, Labour, didn’t make the gains they should have. With a drop in support of over 11% for Fianna Fail, Labour only gained 2.8% while SF gained over 10%. In an election with a huge swing against Fianna Fail, the Greens and Fine Gael actually lost support in Dublin!! An interesting result in Ballymun was that Eamon O’Brien, a sitting Labour councillor who had voted for the Bin Tax, was outpolled by over 1,000 first prefs by his running mate Andrew Montague, who was running for the first time.
Outside the Dublin City Council area Mick Murphy in Tallaght topped the poll over Mark Daly, a Sinn Feiner who had supported the Bin Tax against party policy and Clare Daly and Ruth Coppinger were elected in Fingal. Pat Dunne in Rathfarnham polled over 2,200 first prefs, Gino Kenny polled over 1,000 first prefs in Clondalkin, Lias Maher narrowly missed out on a seat with over 1,200 first prefs in Dundrum and Richard Boyd Barrett polled over 1,439 in Dun Laoghaire.
It will be very interesting to see how Labour behaves on this issue as the biggest party on Dublin City Council with Sinn Fein breathing down their necks. Fianna Fail will be delighted to see Labour having to take the ‘hard’ decisions in the run up to the General Election. So will Sinn Fein.