Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

Tonight's debate is about a fundamental principle, the principle of subsidiarity. It is a debate about whether local government should be allowed to decide how local services are to be delivered, taking into account local needs and conditions, or whether we should instead look to micro-management by the Minister of the day of these essentially local services.

We have come a long way in the past eight years in terms of an integrated waste management strategy. The issue of waste charges is a central element in any sustainable waste management policy. Ireland is following an approach adopted by best practice in Europe. The comprehensive policy framework for modernising our approach to waste management was put in place in the 1998 document, Waste Management: Changing our Ways. That policy approach is centred on the integrated waste management approach based on the internationally adopted hierarchy of waste options.

The policy context was strengthened in 2002 with the publication of Preventing and Recycling Waste: Delivering Change. These policy statements will remain the bedrock of waste management policy in Ireland in the coming period. They are designed to achieve, by 2013, the ambitious targets set out in Waste Management: Changing Our Ways, which include recycling of 35% of municipal waste and recycling of at least 50% of C and D waste. Waste Management — Changing our Ways also set a number of complementary targets aimed at increasing recycling rates, including, for example, a diversion of 50% of household waste from landfill, a minimum 65% reduction in biodegradable waste consigned to landfill, and the development of composting and other biological treatment facilities. I make these points because these services cost money.

Progress towards these targets has been very encouraging. In its national waste database report for 1998, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that only 9% of municipal waste was recovered for recycling that year. The figure for 2003 is 28%. The recovery rate of packaging waste is estimated to have increased from 15% in 1998 to 42% in 2003.

All the indications are that the recycling position has improved even further with the progressive roll-out of two-bin or dual-bin collections. Dual-bin collection is now available to 560,000 households, approximately 42% of all households nationally, and there is the continued expansion of the bring bank network. Over 1,800 bring banks are currently in place compared with 850 only six years ago. The increased network of civic amenity recycling centres is now another reality.

The expansion in the waste recycling infrastructure has been assisted by significant funding provided to local authorities from the environment fund. A capital grants scheme established in 2002 has provided €50 million so far for 90 projects. However, all this notable development comes at a price. The scale of investment is reflected in the charges which need to be levied by both public and private sector operators. That our waste management costs should be met in this way has been the policy of successive Governments. I recall that Deputy Howlin, when Minister for the Environment, made the point in the document, Better Local Government, that "Unlike charges for domestic water supply and sewerage facilities, charges for domestic refuse collection can be related to usage, and will be an important instrument in waste management policy". Deputy Howlin was correct. The move to pay-by-use charging now being implemented flows directly from that statement. It is dishonest to suggest otherwise.

The setting of such waste charges is a matter for the individual local authorities or private operators. The polluter pays principle, which is espoused by so many Members, advocates that the cost of managing waste is met by those who generate it. As in many cases, the reality is that what is preached here is quite often not practised at local level. Historically a system of flat rate charging applied in most local authorities. The switch to use-based charges will reward those who generate least waste and who are most active in recycling. Deputy Gilmore, when appearing on RTE recently, accepted that pay-by-use waste charges are an equitable method of charging for waste services.

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