Mr. Daithí Doolan:

I will be very brief in responding. The IPA gave three scenarios and the Deputy is correct that this is one of them, but there are two others. One is quite favourable to the argument that there should be one collector providing the service, in line with other European countries. No other municipality in Europe has been charged with being anti-competitive or contravening EU regulations. The drift is towards remunicipalisation and a single collection service. We are the ones out of kilter, with a haphazard plethora of services. It is like some kind of tapestry of waste management collection, rather than a comprehensive service, central to waste management and climate change. The report says that it would be possible for Dublin City Council to indicate that it would have one service provider that would meet criteria and arrangements, one operator to provide the service. Under this scenario, private operators would be prohibited from operating within the area allocated. It would appear that such a scenario would not be deemed anti-competitive. However, in order to afford Dublin City Council with the necessary certainty, amendments to the Waste Management Act 1996 would have to be put in place. We are saying that the current regime is unsustainable. It does not benefit householders or the environment. We need to step forward and this shows an avenue we can go down.