Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Absolutely, Deputy O'Connor. I do not know what the Deputy is saying but I agree with it.

The issue in this debate is straightforward. In a country as small as this, where 21 of the larger local authorities have privatised waste collection and where there is a question of clarity about what the law permits in terms of a waiver scheme in the case of private collection, serious hardship is being unnecessarily visited on people on low incomes. I do not know why the Government wants this to happen. An overwhelming majority of people accept "the polluter pays" principle and are willing to pay a reasonable charge to have their waste collected. They know it encourages reduction, recycling and so forth. Why allow a situation to prevail where the county and city managers are obliged to exert the full economic cost and, as a result, impose this hardship on people on low incomes?

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