KildareNet News

NAAS, 23 April 2002: by Bill Trapman. Deputy Emmet Stagg has slammed Naas Town Council for their ‘mean and uncaring’ attitude to the less well-off in the town.

Naas Town, he said, is the only part of County Kildare where there is no relief from hardship caused by the payment of refuse charges. In every other part of the county, Old Age Pensioners, Invalidity Pensioners, the Unemployed and other low income families are entitled to a waiver of the charges for the refuse service.

"Why are the less well-off treated less favourably in Naas than in Sallins or Kill or Newbridge?" he asks. "The answer is simple - a majority of the elected members in Naas (FF, FG, PD and two Independent) privatised the refuse service and ended the waiver scheme, thereby punishing the weakest in the community. This has not only resulted in hardship being ignored but it has also led to Naas being subjected to the highest refuse rates in the County: Naas at 327 euros, the rest of the County 240 at euros. Is this the result of the much-vaunted privatisation and so called competition?"

Deputy Stagg says that the Council, since their decision in 1997, have 'hidden behind' legal arguments that they had no authority to reintroduce a waiver or hardship relief scheme. "However, Cllr Pat McCarthy has now secured Senior Council advice that shows the Council's legal position to be groundless. And yet Cllr McCarthy's Motion was not accepted by the same cabal. Their meanness knows no bounds but their excuses are now exposed."

Deputy Stagg says he is now demanding that Cllr Pat McCarthy's Motion be adopted and that pensioners and other poorer families in Naas 'be treated no less favourably' than those in the rest of the county. "I will not accept lame excuses from unelected officials as to the work load involved or cries that the town of Naas must punish its senior citizens financially to balance its books," he said. "If they have financial problems they should look elsewhere for resources."