Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

As I stated, I do not subscribe to the view that we must have a nationalised household waste collection service. People have many choices with regard to recycling and civic amenity centres, and they also have a choice with regard to who will collect their waste. I agree with the Deputy that it is not acceptable to have five different collectors going into one housing estate. We are seeing what we can do to regularise this. I wholeheartedly subscribe to the view that it does nothing good for the environment. However, we must have in place a system that will not cost an enormous amount of money to the customer or to local authorities. We are heading down the road of people paying more for their services to ensure we will not be paying any more income tax. This is the choice people will have to make. Under the law people are required to dispose of their waste. They have a series of options and I advise them to take one.

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