KildareNet News

NAAS, 17 April 2002: by Brian Byrne. Naas town clerk Declan Kirrane made it very clear last night that he didn’t want Naas Town Council to be involved in any way in any scheme which reimbursed ‘hardship’ cases for their refuse collection charges.

Speaking after the deferral of a motion from Cllr Pat McCarthy which sought to have the council pay a ‘subvention’ to ‘certain categories of Social Welfare recipients’ to cover the full cost of such charges, Mr Kirrane said that the administration required in a previous ‘waiver’ scheme was ‘unbelievable’ and he would ‘really dread it’ if a similar situation was implemented.

“From experience, we would be spending half of our time dealing with such applications,” he told councillors bluntly. “Every person receiving Social Welfare would be looking for a 100% reimbursement.”

Cllr Timmy Conway had succeeded in sidelining the motion with an amendment proposing its deferral. In fact, his amendment probably saved the motion from a direct defeat last evening, as Mayor Willie Callaghan was on the point of putting it to a vote which likely would have been defeated.

Earlier, Cllr McCarthy had strongly resisted calls for a deferral of the motion, which was underpinned by legal advice from a barrister engaged at his own expense by the councillor to use two statutory Acts as the basis for providing such a subvention.

The town clerk had said he would refer the motion to the council’s own legal advisors ‘if it was passed’, but Cllrs Pat O’Reilly, Seamie Moore and Mayor Willie Callaghan all wanted it deferred pending an inspection of Cllr McCarthy’s advice, while Cllr Eibhlin Bracken wouldn’t agree to it without the council ‘getting its own legal opinion’. Cllr Moore said there was a danger the authority would give refuse contractors a ‘licence to print money’ if it provided subventions instead of first promoting a policy of the ‘polluter pays’ by weight of refuse.

Cllr Charlie Byrne told the meeting he ‘had no problem’ supporting the motion but was concerned about how ‘hardship’ cases might be assessed. “I come across hardship when a couple have difficulty paying their mortgage and their phone bills,” he noted. “There’s more hardship out there than just the elderly.”

Cllr Mary Glennon said the council could help the hardship cases, while at the same time undertaking an ‘education’ policy to create less refuse.

In his reply, Cllr McCarthy suggested that ‘red herrings’ were being strewn, and called on his colleagues to ‘go for it’. “It can be done, it IS being done elsewhere,” he said. “I don’t want any cop-out. If we’re not careful, Naas will be the only town in the country where such hardship is not being helped.”

In the end, it remained unclear whether the town clerk would accept Cllr McCarthy’s legal advice for consideration, given the fact that the motion had not been passed. The motion is due for revisiting at the next meeting.