Galway City Council chamber erupted in controversy on Monday night when City Manager Joe MacGrath accused local residents of abusing the waste waiver system for the elderly and unemployed.

Speaking at the council's annual budget meeting, Mr MacGrath said that the new pay-by-weight system had allowed them to identify certain householders who were abusing the waiver system. He used an example of one particular household producing four times the average waste output, leading the council to believe the householder had been dishonest in the application.

His assertions were strongly rebuked by councillors attending the meeting who said that it was unsuitable to talk about system abuse when it was unknown how many, if any, were taking advantage of the measure.

Councillor Daniel Callanan told the Galway Independent that the City Manager's comments were a last-ditch attempt to persuade the councillors to abolish the waste waiver.

"I don't know why he would bring it up at that stage of the meeting, when we were putting forward proposals. He said that he raised it earlier in the meeting but that is not true. It was obviously a last ditch attempt to swing the vote and land a cloud of suspicion over the 3,000 people who use this waiver. I think its unbelievable, I don't know what he was playing at," said the angry councillor.

"He had no figures to show us of how many people are abusing the system, and with pay by weight it is very easy to identify the people who might be abusing the system and take measures to stop it. This is just a low blow against the most vulnerable people in our society. I don't know what kind of fantasy land the City Manager is living in, but €150 is an awful lot of money to a single mother with three or four children or an elderly couple on the pension. I think it is really important that we keep this waiver no matter what," he said.

City Manager Joe McGrath defended his comments saying that he felt "bound" to make the councillors aware of any abuse of the system before the waiver issue was decided.

"I think it was the appropriate time to bring up the subject as I felt bound to notify the councillors of the small number of cases of people abusing the system. This is an issue which will definitely need to be examined and as votes had to be made, I felt it was the right time to bring it up," he said.

The viability of the City Council's waste service has long been a source of concern, with some councillors calling for it to be privatised. As a result, council officials had put forward a proposal to dispose of the waiver for elderly, unemployed and disabled in order to save €1 million for the annual budget.

However, a large group gathered outside the council chamber's to protest against the plans, displaying signs saying, "Don't attack the poor ? Keep the bin waiver". During the meeting, the proposal was met with disgust from city councillors who strongly opposed the abolition and chose to include the waiver in the 2008 budget plans.

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