Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent)
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I will be brief. I will try to add questions that have not been touched on as much. One thing that has been mentioned is procurement versus actual remunicipalisation and returning to a public service. It seems from the IPA report that if we had direct delivery, it would solve many of the concerns around procurement. I ask the witnesses to comment on the idea of having a public service.

One of the issues that arises with procurement, no matter what conditions are added to a tender or a request for tenders, is that it cannot be as flexible or responsive as is the case with public service delivery. We have seen that in the recent reports that companies intend to hike household waste charges because the amount of waste is reducing as a result of the deposit return scheme. It is similar to the situation with toll roads. The objective with waste management is to reduce, reuse and recycle. If reducing and reusing are happening, the possibility that recycling would become more expensive is counterproductive to the ultimate goal. Will the witnesses comment on that?

The recent reports also highlighted that there is a lot of profit to be made from the waste itself. Aluminium, for example, is bringing in €800 to €1,400 a tonne. Plastic is being sold for approximately €500 per tonne. This suggests that, operating at scale, public waste services could end up generating money for the State, while being free from having to have that as their goal. Will the witnesses comment on that? The CCPC report last week mentioned that domestic waste collection is a natural monopoly. It is really about looking at the possibility of municipalisation with those issues in mind.

Will the witnesses also comment on the fact that illegal dumping seems to be reduced in places where there are public and accessible waste collection services?