John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

The Deputy has highlighted inconsistencies among local authorities. I am aware of inconsistencies across the board, in planning, waste management and a range of other areas. We are introducing efficiency criteria and considering how to obtain greater efficiencies and consistency in all areas. The most recent legal advice suggests that in an area serviced by the private sector the local authority may not provide a waiver or subsidy in respect of services it does not directly provide. However, the local authority does have discretion either to re-enter the collection service as a direct provider or to procure competitively a service provider to collect waste on its behalf. There is an example in Limerick city of how this power has been used to arrange for collection of household waste from certain customers judged unable to meet the cost of a commercially provided service.

The difficulty is that, as the Deputy may know, there is to be a major court case in Dublin which will affect the future of these services. I have met officials from SIPTU in this regard. Dublin is a cauldron of operators in that each week new private operators seem to appear. This needs to be sorted out and it will be shortly in the context of the court case. I also made reference to the OECD report which will be issued shortly. This will also inform our decision on how to proceed.

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