Mr. Richy Carrothers:

I thank the Cathaoirleach. For the purpose of brevity I will read selectively from the opening statement. On behalf of Fórsa, I would like to thank the committee for the invitation to engage in this important discussion.

There is a clear public-private split in the provision of waste management across Europe. While privatisation has been a significant trend over many years, there is now increasing evidence of services being insourced - that is, formerly privatised services and infrastructure being brought back under direct public ownership and management. For instance, the Public Futures database, which maps international cases where services have returned to public provision, and which is maintained by the University of Glasgow, identifies the large number of remunicipalisation examples across Europe. I have listed those in the opening statement.

The number of insourcing cases is likely to be much higher, as many are not recorded. For example, in Norway in 2017, the failure of RenoNorden, one of the country’s largest waste companies, led to more than 100 services being insourced. This highlights the opportunities that arise from company failures. There has also been a clear trend in Germany, where a quarter of all municipalities were using in-house services for waste collection in 2015, compared to only 14% in 2003. While there are several reasons for insourcing in Germany, for example, it was often the result of cost-benefit analyses by municipalities.

To date, most research on the circular economy is conducted with the purpose of promoting it, mostly consisting of reports from public institutions and civil society organisations, with little research that assesses the employment implications arising from such a transition in the circular economy.

Many councils, faced with an unviable business model for domestic refuse, exited waste management market and this has ultimately resulted in a quasi market for waste which is poorly regulated with environmental and other costs. Private refuse services are not only unaccountable, but the current quasi market model has led to cartel-like private bin collection services which have proved uncompetitive, inefficient and unable to provide affordable or consistent coverage. The lack of competition has been evidenced through market research carried out by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, and colleagues have already alluded to that.

I also refer the committee to the IPA report in terms of Dublin City Council and colleagues have referred to that on a number of occasions. I will reference the role of local authorities in waste provision. Austerity, privatisation, executive direction and centralisation have hollowed out public services and stripped local authorities and local communities of their democratic power. Ireland now has the worst level of local representation and one of the weakest local governments in Europe.

Local government represents the greatest interrelationship between the citizen and the State and must be protected.

Fórsa has a vision for enhanced provision of local services and strengthened local democracy in Ireland. Strong local government which provides localised, efficient, and effective public services is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy. Local government is our greatest and most underused resource. It touches every aspect of our daily lives, impacting on where we live and work, in our schools, our homes and our public parks. On 15 July 2022, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage issued a document titled, Irish Water Transformation: the Wider Policy Context. The document was requested by the water workers’ trade unions as part of the transfer of local authority water services to Uisce Éireann to ensure the rejuvenation of the local government sector. In the section titled Future of Local Government, the Minister stated:

The local government system is currently embarking on a significant expansion of activities across a range of areas such as Active Transport, Housing for All, Age Friendly Ireland, Town Centre First, the Biodiversity ... Programme, the Climate Action Plan [for] 2021, [etc].

In Fórsa, we believe that the re-municipalisation of waste is good for workers, service users and the environment. The ask from the union is simple. It is to introduce legislative changes to the Waste Management Act 1996 that would provide for the return of waste collection services to local authorities and support the development of initiatives within local authorities for the re-municipalisation of waste collection services. We thank the committee for the opportunity to share some of our thoughts on the circular economy as it relates to waste management and look forward to a broader and more in-depth discussion.