Mr. Frank Conway:

The price monitoring group was established by the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten. The purpose of the group is to monitor the ongoing cost of residential waste collection to homeowners across Ireland as the flat-rate structure is being phased out in line with Government waste policy to incentivise the prevention and segregation of household waste. The most recent report was in April 2018 in respect of data gathered in March. The reports monitor 26 service providers, which is made up of 19 individual companies with several of those being monitored in more than one area. Those companies made 39 different service offerings available in March 2018, down from 41 in February and from 45 in the first report of the price monitoring group in December.

There are nine types of price models on the market. Examples of price models include: service charge plus per kilogram weight charge; E-tag; service charge plus charge per lift per bin plus per kilogram excess charge; and flat rate.

With regard to green bin charges, it is widely acknowledged that the decision by China to restrict its intake of recycled waste has resulted in the cost of recycling increasing worldwide as more companies on an international scale jostle for access to a reduced number of outlets. Some providers have already informed their customers they will be either increasing or introducing charges for recyclate from April. This is not a new concept. Since we began gathering data, various service offerings contained visible fees for recyclate, as can be seen in the data analysis published by the price monitoring group.

With regard to consistent disclosure of prices, an issue of concern to the price monitoring group has been the ongoing difficulty obtaining clear price information over the phone with prices having to be confirmed online in a number of instances. I am aware this information is not always available online and that not everyone has Internet access. In our last market comment the group called on waste management companies to provide better training for staff answering calls to ensure pricing data is clear, complete and consistent and provided quickly and efficiently.

The group has considered seven months of data to date. While fluctuations in prices and service offerings have been observed, the overall trend is relative price stability. The most popular service offering now is the service charge including weight allowance plus per kilogram charge for excess above allowance. The availability of this price model has increased from seven offerings in the first round of data collection to 16 offerings in the most recent round of data collection, down slightly from a peak of 18 in series six, which is the previous month.

The group comprises: representatives from the waste policy and resource efficiency division of the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment; an economist from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment; a statistician from the Central Statistics Office; Shelfwatch, an independent price monitoring group; and me. I am an independent consumer expert and chair of the group. To date, the price monitoring group has met on eight occasions, on 13 September 2017, 11 October 2017, 14 November 2017, 12 December 2017, 9 January 2018, 13 February 2018, 13 March 2018 and 10 April 2018. I have also submitted copies of the reports and the data to the committee.