Greyhound Bins

At a special meeting of the City Council I put forward eight emergency motions dealing with the Greyhound deal and following is what was agreed:

1. Homeowners in the city must be provided with at least the same level of waste collection service that they had previously received from DCC or real choice of more than two alternative service providers. The City Manager is to re-instate domestic bin collections in the city.

2. Greyhound is to offer the same payment terms e.g. quarterly in arrears to all customers in the city.

3. DCC Waste Collection employees were poorly treated and DCC failed them as an employer by failing to give them an opportunity to compete for the waste collection service and/or providing them with alternative meaningful employment.

4. The City Manager is to provide a report detailing what services Ernst and Young provided with regards to domestic waste collection to DCC. The report should outline the criteria by which E&Y were awarded the contract, what other service providers bid for the contract, the total value of the contract and identify what expertise E&Y provided for €250k that DCC itself did not have after 100 years providing waste collection services?

5. The decision by Dublin City Manager and adjoining County Managers to withdraw from waste collection could lead to the establishment of a private monopoly and is to be referred to the Competition Authority to review the decisions taken and the resulting competitive situation in the four Dublin markets.

6. We raised concerns over the transfer of customer information from DCC to Greyhound without their prior knowledge or consent. The Data Protection Commissioner is to review the exchange of data between DCC and Greyhound, to advise if there was any breach of data protection guidelines and to take action if there were.

7. The City Manager is to make available to the members the service level agreement and the commercial terms agreed with Greyhound. The Manager should advise what payment Greyhound made to DCC for the business and/or how much DCC is paying Greyhound to fulfil the service.

8. We raised concerns about recent reports that Greyhound has incorporated itself in a foreign jurisdiction, and if correct, express further concern about DCC having engaged a non resident company that may not be required to pay tax or file accounts in this jurisdiction. We ask the City Manager for an immediate response to this report and if correct an explanation of when he first became aware of this change of jurisdiction.

Mary.

Click HERE to see Mary present at Dublin City Council on this issue.

Click HERE to hear Mary on Morning Ireland.

Click HERE for the any updates.

Iona Pay & Display

Dublin City Council has confirmed to me that they will ballot the residents of Iona Road for the introduction of Pay & Display parking. The ballot will be conducted over the coming months. For information on how Pay & Display works, the cost of permit etc. you can find more information HERE. If you have any queries, please drop me an email. Mary.

Labour & The City Manager

Labour in chahoots with City Manager to privatise bin collections.

Dublin City Manager has held secret meetings with Labour City Councillors regarding the privatisation of domestic bin collections in the city. Despite a request from Fianna Fail and Independent Councillors for a special meeting on this issue we were neither invited nor informed to meet the City Manager. How many other secret meetings have been held?

Furthermore Labour’s Lord Mayor of Dublin Cllr Andrew Montague has prevaricated in responding to my request on behalf of Fianna Fail and Independent Councillors, for a special meeting of the City Council to address the real concerns. He has rejected our email request and is insisting that at least five councillors make a written request and has said he will only consider the request after the signatures have been verified!

It beggars belief in this day and age that the Lord Mayor of Dublin, a Councillor that promotes himself as modern technology champion would be peddling such a line. What is more bewildering is that the Lord Mayor does not himself see a need for a Special Meeting of the City Council to address the serious issues that have arisen and must be addressed. In any event, we have delivered the letter as demanded.

Clearly the Labour Lord Mayor and Labour group on the Council have been working very closely with the Manager to privatise the bin service in Dublin but they need to admit that they have made a right mess of the city. We are on day four of the switch over and still homeowners haven't received letters from DCC and/or Greyhound and bins remain uncollected.

We will continue to pursue this issue and I have today contacted the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee to consult with him on the issue. I will let you know when there is a further update. 

Mary

Bins - Special Meeting Request

In light of the serious issues that have arisen with DCC's withdrawal from the collection of domestic waste in Dublin City, last night with the support of the FF councillors and a number of Independent Councillors I formally requested the Lord Mayor to immediately convene a meeting with the CEO of Greyhound and the City Manager to address the following issues:

• Late notification to customers of DCC's withdrawal from the collection of Domestic Waste
• Up-front payment of €112 is unreasonable 
• Fixing of charges for only six months is unreasonable
• Payment arrangements 
• Clarification on continuation of the brown bin service 
• Tags collection
• Alternative operators in Dublin City (i.e. the Manager to identify what competitive operators/choice is available to homeowners in each area of Dublin city) 
• Details of the contract should be disclosed to the elected representatives 

I will update this site when the Lord Mayor replies.

Mary
Click HERE for later updates on this matter.

Domestic Bin Collections

From Monday January 16th 2012, after more 140 years, Dublin City Council will no longer be responsible for collecting domestic rubbish in the city.

Over the past few months I strenuously opposed DCC’s withdrawal from the domestic bin collection service but unfortunately the majority Labour/Fine Geal Councillors supported the City Manager’s plan.

I again raised my concerns with the City Manager on Monday this week and in response the Manager arranged to make information available today on the DCC website HERE.

I hope this information provides you with the information you need about your bin collections but if it doesn’t and you have any other questions please drop me an email and I will be happy to try to help.

Mary.
Click HERE for later updates on this matter.