Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I am aware of his personal interest in waste policy and he has raised a number of important and serious issues, with which I will ask my officials to deal immediately.

Local authorities are responsible for the enforcement of environmental standards for the collection of waste. They consider applications for waste collection permits from service providers. They enforce the conditions of the permits granted on the basis of national policy and regional waste management plans. I accept the Deputy's point that we should examine the conditions attaching to these permits much more rigorously and ensure they are enforced. The treatment and management of waste material is subject to a registration and permit system by local authorities, or licensing by the Environmental Protection Agency, as appropriate. The primary purpose of the licensing, permit and registration system is to facilitate appropriate controls on waste facilities and activities in a way that ensures good and consistent waste management practice and the implementation of high standards of environmental protection. I regret to say this is not happening. The waste industry is further subject to additional regulation outside the remit of my Department. Under animal by-products legislation, for example, composting and anaerobic digestion plants which process food waste are subject to approval by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

As the Deputy knows, my Department's role is to provide a comprehensive legislative and waste policy framework through which the enforcement authorities operate. I published the Government's new waste policy, A Resource Opportunity - Waste Management Policy in Ireland, in July. It sets out the actions Ireland will take to make the further progress needed to become a recycling society, with a clear focus on resource efficiency and the virtual elimination of landfilling municipal waste, thereby minimising our impact on the environment.

Maximising the resources recovered from waste is a central principle of the policy, which contains measures to ensure that prevention, reuse, recycling and recovery are favoured to the disposal of waste, in accordance with the waste hierarchy as set out in the waste framework directive.

The performance of the household waste collection market, in particular, will be crucial to achieving our overall policy objectives and meeting our targets on landfill diversion. Under the new policy, household waste collection will be organised under an improved regulatory regime to address a number of problematic issues. Waste collection companies will have to adhere to improved standards of service, incentivise households to segregate waste and be much more transparent about their charging structures, and they will be held to account for failures under the new permitting regime. This is the key point - enforcement. At the same time, an onus will be placed on households to show how they manage their waste in an environmentally acceptable manner.

The Competition Authority is also being requested by the Government to maintain oversight of household waste collection markets and will report as part of a mid-term review of the implementation of the policy to be carried out in 2016. It is my intention that the implementation of the policy will deliver both enhanced environmental performance, a quality service for consumers and better enforcement in regard to the people collecting the waste.

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