Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

The Government is conscious that waste collection charges can be a significant cost for many households. While the polluter pays principle requires that households and businesses must pay for their waste collection, it is important, particularly in economically challenging times such as these, that efforts are made to provide flexible mechanisms to enable householders to meet costs such as waste charges.

As Deputy McDonald will be well aware, Dublin City Council's withdrawal from the provision of household waste collection services, and the transfer of that business to Greyhound, is a matter for the council and Greyhound. I note that in response to issues raised previously concerning the pre-payment of the €100 annual service charge, Greyhound announced that provision would be made to allow Dublin City Council customers the option of paying the charge in two instalments.

My understanding is that the issue which now arises relates to some 18,000 of the 70,000 former Dublin City Council customers who, although liable to a standing charge, have not yet made payment in that regard. The issue arising at this stage does not affect the remaining 52,000 standing charge customers, nor does it affect the bulk of the other 70,000 former Dublin City Council customers, who are subject to a range of other payment mechanisms or who are covered by waivers. For the Deputy's information, there are 34,000 people on waivers at the moment, which is in line with the commitment we made. In effect, therefore, we are talking about 18,000 customers out of a total of some 140,000. If those 18,000 customers wish to raise any further issues concerning payment structures, customer communications or service changes, they should engage directly with Greyhound.

In addition to the potential to address issues arising through further direct dialogue with Greyhound, it is important to bear in mind that there are alternative options available to householders to deal with their waste. In some areas, there is more than one provider of waste collection services and households can choose from among these. There is also a network of bring facilities and civic amenity sites through which households can deal appropriately with a wide range of waste materials.

I hope the Deputy, in using the words "inevitable illegal dumping" in submitting this item for debate, is not in any way conferring legitimacy on actions of that kind. Notwithstanding any difficulties that may arise from time to time with waste collection in individual areas, the fact remains that it is the responsibility of all citizens to comply with the law and not dispose of their waste illegally. It is simply not good enough for the majority of compliant customers to carry the can for the minority.

As the waste collection market is currently structured, the pricing schemes used by private waste collectors are a matter for determination between the service providers and consumers of the service, subject to a service provider's collection permit and other legal responsibilities being complied with. The programme for Government includes a commitment to introduce competitive tendering for household waste collection, whereby service providers would bid to provide waste collection services in a given area, for a given period of time and to a guaranteed level of service.

A public consultation designed to inform the policy development process concluded last September 2011. Many responses were made by a broad spectrum of interests, including individual citizens, waste management companies, other companies, local authorities and waste management regions, economic think tanks, community and voluntary organisations and State agencies.

As one might expect, a consensus on the alteration of household waste collection market arrangements is not apparent. On almost all the relevant issues, a considerable breadth of opinion was expressed by the collective response. Some respondents expressed outright opposition to competition for the market, others gave it a guarded welcome, while there was strong approval from others. I have published all the responses, together with a summary, on my Department's website.

The approach to future regulation of the household waste collection market will be carefully considered by Government and will take account of the full range of economic, environmental and other issues, and the many perspectives offered by consultees. Of course, policy in relation to household waste collection cannot be severed from other related areas which are also under examination, specifically the collection of household organic waste and wider national waste policy. Clearly, coherence is required, and I intend to conclude my examination of these matters in a unified manner. I expect to be in a position to submit to Government final proposals on household waste collection by Easter.

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