Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentation. I have a couple of questions for the CCMA. Do the councils want to re-enter the bin collection business? That is the central thesis we heard earlier.

It has been very succinctly outlined what the local government does in the regions in terms of enforcement, collection, permitting and so on. Essentially the thesis earlier was that this structure is not working now and there is illegal dumping, etc., but it would be even more difficult in the longer term future to achieve European targets. The thesis was that we need central direction and central management to get a seamless way of doing the business. Has the CCMA's system been evaluated in some objective way to see if there is a lot falling through the crevices in terms of the system not delivering to the standard we want?

In terms of the waste business, it seems inevitable, as both presentations say, that there will be significant challenges in achieving the new targets. Who will take responsibility for the investment that will now be needed? We see from the presentation that if it were to be taken over by the State, it could be a question of the State acquiring €1.3 billion worth of assets. Presumably, to hit the new targets, other investment will be needed. In the present model, where does responsibility lie for making those investments? The corollary is that if we fail to hit the targets, where will the penalties fall? Will they fall on the public or on the providers who are committing to deliver? I would like to go back to the issue of whether two or three trucks on the same street is efficient. The CCPC report seemed to be quite clear that it was not. It talked about a high proportion of people having no choice and that is was not inherently the best way to do it. The report recommended in favour of franchising, with a regulator and franchised areas that would be more comprehensive and therefore, easier to set targets for and monitor. I do not know what the court ruling was but I would like to see the arguments rather than just hear that a judge decided something.