Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

This is a matter for the management of Dublin City Council. The Taoiseach replied to questions on this a couple of days ago and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government responded to a Topical Issue debate on the subject the day before yesterday. The position is that there is a problem affecting approximately 18,000 of a total of 140,000 households in Dublin with a refuse collection service. The Minister's view, which I support and echo, is that the company concerned should be flexible about the requirement of people to pay the up-front charge. It has made it clear that householders who were formerly Dublin City Council customers can pay in moieties. The company should be mindful that other options are open to householders in a competitive waste collection market. It should also be mindful of the position of the Government in the programme for Government, namely, that it is considering the introduction of a tendering process for waste collection services in local authorities. There was public consultation on that aspect of the issue. It concluded in September and the Minister published the submissions that were made and the commentaries thereon. The matter will be considered by the Government.

A sensible approach needs to be taken. There is a transition from Dublin City Council to a private company in regard to the collection of waste. Such transitions are always difficult and have associated problems. The company involved in this matter needs to exercise some flexibility regarding former Dublin City Council customers who are to become its new customers.

See this speech in context