Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter for debate. As the Minister knows, there have been radical changes in the waste industry in the past decade. When Dublin City Council had to privatise its waste collection service last January, it was widely seen as a disaster. I remind the Minister who spoke about those who had spread misinformation in rural areas in response to the previous matter that there are irresponsible Deputies in urban areas also. The actions of the Socialist Workers Party in campaigning for the non-payment of waste charges meant that is was no longer economically viable for Dublin City Council to stay in the waste management business. That resulted in the privatisation of the service, which means we now have a poorer service.

The company that received the contract in Dublin, Greyhound, has engaged in many practices that need to be regulated. It started to distribute letters to customers last week informing them that it would have to charge €1.50 for each bag of recyclable material. That will bring an end to the practice of picking up many bags for free. The Minister will be aware that many houses in the city do not have green bins because they do not have enough space for them. Instead, they put their recyclable waste in green bags. Greyhound which makes massive profits in Ireland has refused to publish its accounts. Given that it charges €9 for a roll of six bags, this latest measure will push people back into putting recyclable waste in black bags. Black bags are not normally full in city areas. Greyhound brought the industry into further disrepute when it imposed dramatic price increases last summer. It piggy-backed on the landfill levy and tried to blame the Minister for the increases, even though they did not equate in any manner to the landfill levy. I tried to highlight this attempt to increase profits at the time.

In May this year some 4,000 tonnes of waste were found illegally stored in County Kildare. A further 2,000 tonnes of illegally stored waste were discovered in June. Last month some 1,000 bales, containing almost 1,000 tonnes of illegally stored waste, were found on a farm in north Dublin. I appreciate that the EPA is investigating these cases. For this to happen once can be considered an oversight. For it to happen twice can be considered a mistake. Now that illegally stored waste has been found three times in a single year, it must be seen as a pattern. It is clear that we need a waste regulator, just as we have regulators in areas such as the energy and communications sectors. The waste industry in the State has almost been entirely privatised. We have multiple operators in many areas across Ireland and need a regulator who could control how the industry operates. I suggest the national regulator should set overall guidelines, to be enforced by the local authorities. We will have the chance to do this when we reform local government radically. Councillors are well placed to monitor, report on and deal with these problems.

The free-for-all that we are seeing needs to be controlled. We need legislation and regulation and citizens need to have confidence in the waste industry. We need to ensure the waste stream is properly regulated and recycling is encouraged. Many of the waste companies will not collect bins unless a hefty sum of money is left on account as a deposit. If a customer wishes to change from one operator to another, he or she will lose the money that is on deposit. This is happening right across Ireland and another example of the citizen losing out in this unregulated and poorly legislated for area.

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