A number of Fine Gael members of Dublin City Council are expected to break ranks next Thursday and vote in favour of a 29 per cent increase in bin charges, in a move that could save the council from dissolution.
Mr Ruairí McGinley, leader of the Fine Gael group on the council, said yesterday that members would meet on Monday to decide how to vote.
"It is likely some members will decide to vote in favour of the Estimates," he said.
"When the city manager asked me after the last council meeting whether there was any point in holding a further meeting on the Estimates I told him I thought there was."
He declined to say how he intended to vote.
On December 23rd, the Fine Gael group's nine members voted against the Estimates, which include a €35 increase in refuse collection charges, to €156 per year.
No vote was taken on December 29th as it became clear the councillors would not agree on the budget proposed by the city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald. The move put the 52 councillors in breach of their legal obligation to agree on a budget for 2003 by the end of December.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, had the power to dissolve the council at that point, but granted councillors an extension, to January 16th, to reach agreement.
In a letter to the city manager, the Minister said no further extension "will be possible in this case".
Asked how many Fine Gael councillors would vote in favour of the charges, Mr McGinley said "less than half".
He denied that there was any direction from senior members of the party on how to vote, saying the group had met and decided together how to vote. At the council meeting of December 23rd, 27 voted against the estimates, 22 voted in favour, with one abstention. Two councillors were absent. The Green Party and Fianna Fáil voted in favour. Sinn Féin, Fine Gael and Labour voted against.
Mr Tommy Broughan, leader of the 13-person Labour Party group, said the party whip to vote against the Estimates would remain for Thursday's meeting.
"This is a very serious vote. I hope the group sticks together and sticks to Labour Party principles."
However, Mr Dermot Lacey, Labour Party member and Lord Mayor of Dublin, said he would again defy the whip and vote to accept the Estimates, a move which is likely to see him excluded from his party group after the vote.
Mr Broughan said he "greatly respected and admired" Mr Lacey, but added he would "definitely be excluded from the party group", and could face expulsion from the party.
"That would be a decision for the general party leadership."
If the councillors do not accept the Estimates the council will be dissolved by the Minister and he will appoint a commissioner to enforce the budget.
It would be the first time the council has been disbanded since 1969, when Mr Frank Cluskey ceased to be lord mayor and the government appointed a commissioner to run the city until 1973.
• The Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Noel Ahern, has said he would be in favour "in principle" of local taxation as a means of revenue generation for local government.
"But it would have to be done in context of an understanding that other taxes would be reduced."
• Householders in Co Waterford will have to pay a wheelie bin charge of €7.50 this year after Waterford County Council yesterday passed the county manager's estimates, with some revisions.
A 67-page report presented to members of the local authority by Mr Donal Connolly provided for expenditure of over €50 million by the council this year.
One of the most contentious elements of the estimates is a 25 per cent increase in the wheelie bin charge, from €6 to €7.50. The cost of a similar service provided by Waterford City Council will increase from €2.54 to €5, if that local authority adopts its estimates next week.
