The Dublin West Socialist Party TD, Mr Joe Higgins, sharply attacked the Government in his first Dáil speech since his month-long stay in Mountjoy Prison.
He asked the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, if "the nauseating double standards of the Government and of the economic, political and judicial establishments in the State" caused her even the slightest embarrassment.
"Does it ever strike her as being even a little unjust that the small people, the working-class men and women and compliant PAYE taxpayers and pensioners, are carted off to jail for a peaceful protest while the millionaire tax-evaders, and the boardrooms of banks and financial institutions that organised scams on a massive 'scale, are untouchable? Does the Tánaiste agree that the Government is exposed as monstrously hypocritical for allowing this to happen?"
Ms Harney said nobody was in jail for engaging in peaceful protest. "People are in jail because they defied a High Court order. I understand that some of the individuals to whom he referred do not have to pay these charges because they have waivers."
The judiciary was independent, she added. "The revenue authorities are independent and have the power to prosecute in these circumstances. We also have an independent Director of Public Prosecutions. The deputy must also be aware that 90 per cent of the people in the area he represents have paid their charges and are entitled to have the service for which they have paid without that being interfered with."
Describing Ms Harney's remarks as "incredible", Mr Higgins accused her of evading the question of the "monstrous hypocrisy and double standards" of the banks.
"Where are the instances of High Court judges bringing the boardrooms of banks - the real criminals - in front of them and sending them to prison instead of decent working-class people?" he asked.
He said that Ms Harney was "politically dishonest", adding that the Government should suspend the brutal policy of the non-collection of the bins of compliant taxpayers and allow the debate on the bin tax and the substantive environmental issues that arose to continue.
"Is the Tánaiste prepared to see Mountjoy Prison become a Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats gulag for hundreds of workers and pensioners over the next few months, because that is what will happen?" he asked.
Ms Harney replied: "The Government will not let 100 or 150 supporters of the deputy halt the refuse collection service for compliant taxpayers in Dublin.
"Some 90 per cent of the people in the Fingal area have either a waiver or have paid their charges, as the deputy knows."
Earlier Mr Higgins told the Dáil he had just come from Mountjoy, having visited some of the "11 ordinary working people incarcerated there and in Cloverhill for peaceful community protest."
