Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Part of the Tánaiste's statement has made my case for me. If people are incentivised to recycle, they separate their organic waste and their paper, plastic and bottles, they pay for their black-bin waste, and they do not pay for the recycling. Then they are incentivised. That incentive is now being taken from them by this increase announced by Panda followed by another increase announced by City Bin. Given the competitive nature of this market, which was designed to be competitive by a previous Fianna Fáil-led Government, no doubt this market will increase the prices for everybody to recycle and thereby remove the incentive. This is the craziness of companies which are making vast profits, most of which will now fund infrastructure in Australia. This is the biggest waste management company in the country.

Panda is now owned by an Australian infrastructure company and its profits will help Australia to build infrastructure. It does nothing for us here except put more hefty bin charges on people and disincentivise them from recycling. I agree with the Tánaiste about landfill. We are burning our waste out in Poolbeg. We have an incinerator that we did not have before and we are still exporting a huge volume of waste, much of it toxic waste.

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