Survey in Dublin 15 shows 82% of Residents will tag their bin

by Joe Wed Oct 01, 2003 12:56

We have a survey carried out by some anonymous dude of some unknown number of people using unknown methods.

I did my own survey* of the area which revealed that 80% of residents are opposing the charges and 70% of these are not paying. Of the 20% supporting the charges 12% are Fianna Fail members and 14% have been abduceted by UFO's more then once.

by Mike M. Wed Oct 01, 2003 13:01

There is one important point made in that community website - the poll is in no way scientific. The author says the respondents constitute a representative cross section of the area - he/she cannot possibly know that without having taken steps to acquire sociodemographic details along with comments. Also we have no idea how many respondents there were - if there were only 100 then the poll is pretty meaningless and as it stands you can't reasonably draw any conclusions from its findings.

Not that I'm having a go at community webpages - they can be a very useful resource! It's just that they're not noted for their expertise in polling.

by Terry Wed Oct 01, 2003 13:11

Firstly this supposed poll is completely unscientific.

But to cut to the argument. Pay by weight or tag schemes are not going to generate a profit for private waste companies. And this has been proved elsewhere.

The tag system shortly after privatisation will be replaced by a flat fee possibly of several hundred euros, with the tag scheme system on top of that.

The minister for the environment in the ongoing PR war recently stated he would advise all councils to bring in tag by weight schemes. This of course is a crude attempt to attach green creditionals to the government's policy. As outlined above, we would still get flat fees in by the back door and by that stage politicans will have washed their hands of the whole affair as they will state that is a private business matter.

The government and councils will go to any length to lie and mislead the public.

by very unscientific oh yes. cold water. pour cold water. Wed Oct 01, 2003 13:37

I looked in to my crystal ball and it said so, in big letters and numbers, it said....

(try and let your eyes relax and go out of focus)

eevvveerrryyyooonnnneee wwwiiilllllll
bbbbeeee tttttaaaagggggggggeeeeeeddd.

by Useful Idiot Wed Oct 01, 2003 14:16

I carried out a survey which found that 95% of people in Dublin 15 oppose the bin tax. Of course my survey wasn't carried out in any kind of scientific way, I just asked a few people...

by Phill DeFoorm - MoRBulI Wed Oct 01, 2003 14:21

Suggested topics to be considered for future polls
1. Should Ansbacher Account "spongers" go to jail?
2. Should brown bag rezoning councillers go?
3. Should Larry Goodman go?
4. Should CJ Haughey go?
5. Was the sentence given to L Lawlor too light?
and should he be allowed to use his ill gotten gains to buy up half of Prague?
6. Could the lost revenue from the Tax Anmesties have covered the cost of waste disposal?
7. Should drunk driving politicians be imprisoned or expelled?

Or you could even ask what topics should be surveyed in the first place

by MG Wed Oct 01, 2003 14:55

If anybody actually bothered to read the results of the survey, they would find that a majority of respondents OPPOSE the bin tax.

This is what the west15.com website says:

"82.35% of respondents said that they will tag their bags for collection.

41.18% were totally supportive of the tag system.

41.17% were not in favour of the system as it stands but were willing to accept it.

17.65% of respondents were totally against the bin tag system".



By my reckoning, 41.17% plus 17.65% equals 58.82% equals a majority.

by righteous pragmatist Wed Oct 01, 2003 16:26

The government should co-operate with the extra terrestrials in league with the industrial capitalist corporate elitist agenda and begin to abduct bin tax protestors.
obviously they will be anally probed and tags inserted.
No purpose really except the peverse enjoyment of inflicting pain on you turds.

by Blanchardstown Wed Oct 01, 2003 16:31

BIN TAG POLL CONDUCTED ON DUBLIN 15 COMMUNITY WEBSITE SHOWS 82% SUPPORT FOR BIN TAGGING

West 15.com is a Community Website for the Dublin 15 area. Administrator of the site Mr. Vincent Cahill recently conducted a poll among his subscriber list. According to Mr Cahill he was anxious to get as many views as possible on the subject.

“I conducted the survey to gauge people’s reactions to the current dispute between Fingal County Council and the Anti Bin Tax Campaign. An email was sent out to all the members of the website mailing list inviting comments and reactions to the situation.

The membership of the mailing list represents a broad section of the Dublin 15 population in terms of age, location and status. While the results of the survey may not be considered scientifically correct, they are an interesting indication of the feelings of the householders caught up in this dispute.

The replies received were articulate and well thought out and showed that the issue of waste management is something taken very seriously by the people of Dublin 15. Many people have already taken to recycling their waste and the feeling comes across that once we have to pay to have our rubbish removed, we will give more thought to what actually ends up in our bins”

The results of the poll were as follows.
82.35% of respondents said that they will tag their bags for collection.

Of those 82.35% of people,

41.18% were totally supportive of the tag system and,
41.17% were not in favour of the system as it stands but were willing to accept it.
17.65% of respondents were totally against the bin tag system

Visit the website to read the views of the residents of Dublin 15



1st October 2003-10-01

Further Press Queries
Vincent Cahill
61 Huntstown Drive
Clonsilla
Dublin 15
vin@west15.com Ph. 821 6178
Mob. 087 616 5288

by P1 - None Wed Oct 01, 2003 16:33

Surveys of this type are utterly worthless IMHO. Self-selected responders are a distinct, discrete group for any survey and they are universally recognised as unrepresentative in any experimental context. They can only be used to make conclusions about the responders themselves and cannot be used to extrapolate to a general conclusion about the population at large.
Furthermore, the fact that this was an on-line survey should tell you a little about the responders, i.e., computer competent, e-mail enabled, internet connected, etc. I believe that use of the internet in Ireland is low compared to other countries. It is also more likely to be found in middle class homes.
Also, the information about the questions asked is so vague that we really don't know what the responders agreed or disagreed with. If the question is "Are you in favour of a bin tax that will prevent an outbreak of the plague that is certain to wipe out your family" then most people will probably respond "yes" and be deemed to favour a bin tax. This may seem a childish example but this is actually the way survey questions are weighted especially when it comes to surveys motivated by a political agenda.

There are many other issues that could be discussed at length about survey methods but for sure this kind of uncontrolled, undetailed data are only ever done to cause confusion or to show artifical support for some agenda or other. In my oponion the person who did the survey is politically devious or, at best, foolishly naive.

by Surveyor2 Wed Oct 01, 2003 17:03

Yesterday between 7pm and 8.30pm I did a survey in Molesworth Street. There were about 2,000 participants in the survey. There was an overwhelming majority opposed to the bin tax.

My figures break down as follows:

For the bin tax: Nil = 0%

Against the bin tax: 2,000 = 95.238%

Don't know: 100 (approx)(Gardai & a few media people) = 4.76%

by Chekov Wed Oct 01, 2003 17:03

the poll about taxation in the Irish times a couple of days ago.

They asked are you in favour of more taxes or less spending. Of course people hear this as: 'do you want to pay more tax'. Naturally since the PAYE worker disproportionatly funds the government, most people are going to say no. On the other hand if the question had been:

"Are you in favour of higher tax for the rich or cutting public funding"

Or

"Are you in favour of bringing corporation and capital gains taxes into line with PAYE tax or cutting funding to public services"

You'd get very different responses

by Joe Wed Oct 01, 2003 17:16

If this is a web survey

1. How did you confirm that a respondent was a D15 resident rather then someone sitting in Finna Fail HQ in Molesworth st

2. How did you exclude multiple voting by some in Finna Fail HQ in Molesworth st.

Both would be common features of online polls.