Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I come from Westport which is one of the tidiest towns in Ireland and has won the tidy towns competition on many occasions. It came second last year in the overall competition and was deemed Ireland's tidiest large town.

The issue tonight is not about waste, however, it is about who can afford to pay for a refuse service. I have a suggestion for the Government. I thought it had developed a new social conscience when it went to Cork and Father Healy came to talk to its members. In the recent budget, the Government lectured the House and told us there was a new socialist party in the country. While the Government says it has moved over with the Labour Party, it has failed to prove as much in its actions. Pensioners earn €179 per week but the cheapest refuse service in Westport is €300. While there is a 50% waiver for pensioners, it is not right that they must still put aside a full week's pension to pay for a refuse service. The issue is not one of keeping towns, villages or the country clean, it is one of fairness.

We have free schemes for fuel, electricity supply and telephone services. Any elderly person benefiting from a free scheme should have his or her refuse collected for free whether it is by the public or private sector. I heard Deputy Crawford refer to local authorities. Some are good and do their best to promote the environment and provide bins and bottle banks while others make no effort. The latter authorities are delighted to have as much refuse to collect as possible to allow them to earn more revenue. While they tell us it costs a great deal to collect refuse, who monitors their claims? Refuse collection has been the greatest money-making racket for local authorities across the country. They never had as much money and never found it as easy to collect. In this context, it is wrong to penalise people on pensions.

A waiver scheme should be introduced which functions like the free schemes to provide free refuse collection to pensioners. They are the people who put this country where it is today. How can a person on €179 per week be expected to put money aside to pay heavy refuse charges to local authorities? We must be realistic and fair to protect the vulnerable people in society. We must not talk about it, but take action. Local authorities do not care about the elderly or anyone else as long as they get their money. When the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, spoke about all the money he gave local authorities this year, he failed to tell the House that most of it will, among other things, be absorbed by inflation and used to pay for benchmarking.

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