Mr. Richy Carrothers:

I will not repeat the points I already made. Senator Higgins is on to something. In essence, the system, as it is currently constructed, is punishing service users and the public for doing what is asked of them by increasing prices despite the fact they are engaging with recycling waste according to what the State requires. At the heart of this is that when we have a system that is based on profit in respect of public provision, there will always be a push-and-pull factor.

I want to repeat this point. Not only is there a suppression of labour costs but the people who feel the sharpest impact are people living in working-class communities in the State because the provision tends to be less and the cost tends to be more for them. In Fórsa we are absolutely of the view that at the heart of this is to remunicipalise it. It works. The model is central across Europe. We have really strong capital cities remunicipalising their waste as per the IPA report, and there is more. I commend the Public Futures database that would affirm that the model works. Of course, private companies will resist it because it is about cutting profit margins but the State is re-entering a market it abandoned during the austerity years. We are simply asking that the Dáil would take steps in order to bring about the legislative change to deliver the services people need and require. Waste management and the provision of waste collection is a public service.