A Cork mother of three was jailed in Limerick for five days yesterday for not paying litter fines.
Condon of Onslow Gardens, Cork, had been fined for putting refuse on the steps of City Hall.
Members of Householders Against Service Charges (HASC), tie their refuse in bags which is deposited on City Hall steps every Monday evening, just before the weekly meeting of Cork Corporation. They are protesting against the corporation's refusal to collect their rubbish because of non-payment of service charges. The group campaigns for the eradication of the £140 annual service charge. A HASC spokesman, Mr Joe Moore, said city authorities were using the littering act to criminalise a legitimate protest.
A fellow HASC member, Ms Marie Healy, has vowed she will go to prison rather than pay fines she received at a sitting of Cork District Court last March. "I don't like going to jail but if I have to I will." Condon is the first female service charge campaigner to be jailed. Both she and Mrs Healy presented themselves to gardai for arrest in May but were sent home.