The anti-bin charge protests that continued in parts of Dublin today are growing increasingly bitter.
Fingal County Council this afternoon accused protesters of becoming aggressive both to council employees and residents who have chosen to pay their bin taxes.
Anti-bin tax protesters strongly denied the charges of aggression and intimidation and said it was "quite apparent that the Council has abandoned whole communities" by refusing to send trucks into certain areas.
The protests entered their third day today despite a High Court injunction against 15 campaigners, including Socialist Party TD Mr Joe Higgins and Socialist Party councillors Ruth Coppinger and Clare Daly, preventing them from obstructing refuse collectors.
A spokeswoman for Fingal Co Council told ireland.comthis afternoon that the protestors were "turning very nasty" in some parts of the Council's catchment area.
She described how one woman in the Warrenstown area attempting to have her bins collected was "slow handclapped" by a group of protesters as she tried to have her bin emptied.
The spokeswoman also said that some bin protesters had continued cutting off the tags - which show if the bin tax has been paid - on bins at night time in the Dublin 15 area.
Despite the protests, she said more than 70 per cent of the refuse-collection service had been carried out as normal today.
Trucks that were unable to enter certain areas of Dublin 15 in case they were blockaded returned unannounced to Skerries and Rush where they had been unable to collect refuse in on Friday and picked up tagged refuse.
The Fingal anti-bin tax campaign today claimed that residents fighting the tax in Fingal had stopped three refuse collection trucks on the basis that it is "all taxpayers' bins must be collected or none can be".
Speaking to ireland.comthe chairwoman of the campaign, Ms Daly, rubbished suggestions of heavy-handed tactics and accused the Council of relying on a campaign of "misinformation".
The group claimed the Council was not attempting to implement the service on many routes today, which they say is "is testament to the strength of feeling which the Council knows exists in great swathes of Fingal".
She said it was "absolute nonsense" to suggest that the campaign had torn tags of bins or intimidated neighbours. "The purpose of this campaign is to ensure all the bins are collected. We have no interest in taking the tags of bins."
A second Dublin local authority ceased collecting refuse from householders who have not paid their bin charges this morning.
Dublin City Council followed the example of Fingal County Council in ordering its bin lorries to bypass any homes that have been black-listed for defaulting.
In an effort to avoid protests similar to those witnessed in the neighbouring local authority area last week, the city council is implementing non-collection on a phased basis, concentrating initially on households in Dublin 4, 6 and 6W.
The local authority has deliberately chosen the most affluent areas in which to start as it believes they will be more compliant under the new regime.
