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Fianna Fáil Councillors on Dublin City Council raised serious concerns at a special council meeting and succeed in getting a number of motions passed, including one that requires that homeowners in the city must be provided with at least the same level of waste collection service that they had previously from the Council, and that the Council service is restored while this is ensured.
The Manager admitted that the changeover to Greyhound was badly handled and they had made mistakes that will take weeks to sort-out.
Fianna Fáil Group Leader on Dublin City Council, Cllr Mary Fitzpatrick, thanked the Lord Mayor and Labour Councillors for supporting the eight Fianna Fail motions one of which calls for homeowners to receive at least the same service as before, or that a real choice of more than two alternative service providers is offered. Cllr Fitzpatrick said: "Our motion further requires the City Manager to re-instate domestic bin collections in the city. Separately the Fianna Fáil motion calls on the City Manager to ensure that Greyhound offer the same payment terms to customers i.e. quarterly in arrears to all customers.
"Recent reports that Greyhound has incorporated itself in a foreign jurisdiction, if correct, is cause for concern. Should this prove to be the case, not only does it mean DCC having engaged a non resident company that may not be required to pay tax or file accounts in this jurisdiction it also means that the more than €10million they are demanding from hard pressed homeowners in Dublin is to be held off-shore. What happens to our money if they decide if they go out of business? That is why we are seeking an immediate response from the Manager to this report and if correct an explanation of when he first became aware of this change of jurisdiction.
"Our motion demanding the City Manager to provide a report detailing what services Ernst & Young provided with regards to domestic waste collection was also passed. €250k is an awful lot of public money and we need clarity around 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 that DCC itself did not have after 100 years providing waste collection services?"
(CD/GK)
