Tony Gregory, Accused major parties of collaborating
The Labour Party has denied claims that an inter-party pact led to last night's decision by Dublin City Council to introduce refuse charges of up to £95 a year. Three members of the Labour group in the city council broke party ranks and voted for the proposal. Independent TD, Tony Gregory, claimed that the move was planned by Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour. Had Dublin City Council failed to agree on waste charges, the council faced dissolution. In the end they voted by 25 to 22 votes in favour of introducing annual waste charges of £95 and £65 for households with low waste.
The three votes that swung it were from the Labour Party, who broke the party whip by voting in the way they did. Eamonn O'Brien, Anthony Creevey and former TD Sean Kenny have all been automatically expelled from the Labour party group in the city council. Mr O'Brien says that he intends to continue working with the party. The Independent TD Tony Gregory claimed these three councillors were sacrificial lambs in a bid to prevent the dissolution of the Council.
Ruairí Quinn was at Liberty hall in Dublin addressing his party's general council. He said they were preparing for an election later this year saying the Taoiseach's reassurances that an election would not be held until 2002 could not be believed.
