Mr. Daithí Doolan:

I thank Deputy O'Rourke for his question. Looking at the statistics in the report, in Dublin City Council 3,200 tonnes of illegal dumping is collected every year. That is phenomenal and does not happen in any of the other comparator capital cities. It is nowhere near that. It is not on the radar. It is not an issue or challenge because the other capitals have comprehensive waste management strategies.

Looking at different models, if we park the cost, in one of the models outlined in the IPA report, the householder pays a cost and every type of waste management is then provide free at the point of delivery. Waste is collected from the door - glass, cans, aluminium and paper are all free at the point of delivery. Bulky waste is free at the point of drop-off. Here, we go to Ballymount and pay a fee to those private companies to dump our waste there. In these European capitals that does not happen. Imagine, that the service is free at the point of delivery and comprehensive waste is separated, collected and there is one cost. Here, we have to pay for the illegal dumping in our taxes; for the collection of waste from our doors; we pay for our bulky waste to be dropped off; we are punished if we bring our aluminium and plastic bottles back to the shop. We are paying for the bulky waste as a consumer when we buy products and we are paying for it again when we dump it at Ballymount.

It does not have to be this way and that is what I found illuminating from the IPA report. The regime here is out of step; it is not what happens across Europe; it is not the norm. We are the Wild West and Europe is leading the way. We are asking for support from the legislators to introduce the legislation to allow local authorities to step back into the market and provide a comprehensive waste management strategy that meets the needs of the environment, the householder and those providing the service.