Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. Deputy Catherine Murphy is correct that enforcement is much needed. As I said in my earlier contribution on this amendment, we are bringing in a structure across the country for which the local authorities are responsible and which they will have to enforce. We cannot continue as we are in regard to enforcement and we need a completely new regime. My colleagues have been working on this with me over a period of time. We will have three key regional authorities which will supervise, for want of a better phrase, all local authorities within their remit in regard to adhering to standards and a level of enforcement. That is necessary. I do not know yet what form the three local authorities will take because there is a shared services competition underway at present to find out in what way they will be set up.

With regard to staffing, as Members are aware I have allocated many more staff to the local authorities in recent times, in particular because it was necessary to ramp up in regard to housing, planning, engineering and so on. However, we are also looking at the whole area of enforcement and the environmental section. I want to make that point.

With regard to how we deal with this on a practical level, an environmental officer will supervise waste trucks on the route and will stop the trucks, if necessary. Through the regional and sub-regional regime we are putting in place, there will be a consistent process for doing this. Therefore, waste collectors need to know they are going to be supervised and inspected. They should remember that if they get three fixed notices, they will be automatically reviewed and can lose their permit. I believe that is a good thing. It is not about the €500 alone; it is about the fact they will be reviewed if they are caught three times. Everyone should welcome that.

With regard to the contravention of the permit and the €3,000 fine, we have brought everything in line with the Fines Act. If somebody is indicted on an offence such as this, they will automatically be reviewed. In that scenario, there is quite a strong possibility that somebody will fail the fit and proper persons test and, obviously, they then cannot operate.

Deputy Ó Snodaigh made reference to the position of directors, which is a very valid point. If directors operating in this area go through this process and their permit is taken off them, they are all in that boat. I believe that change is welcome. To be fair, it is an issue that has been raised with me by a number of people. We are putting in place an infrastructure of enforcement in tandem with this Bill and the award in regard to the regional authorities will be completed very soon.

Deputy Ó Snodaigh also raised the issue of those who are collecting rubbish and undertaking activities in a way that is inappropriate. There is no yellow card in this scenario. They should simply be dealt with by the local authorities under the enforcement structure I spoke about. They are not licensed and they should be dealt with - it is as simple as that. I agree this is about enforcement and having the resources around enforcement to deal with this problem. In this whole area, there needs to be a dialling up of enforcement: that will happen and I have said I am committing to that.

With regard to cleaning up this industry, it is an industry that has a lot of issues, including labour issues, with which the Minister of State, Deputy Nash, is dealing. This whole industry needs to move in a direction based on the legislation, regulations and changes in enforcement that are now being brought through, working through the various agencies and the local authorities. If the industry has not got that message, Members should please help me to give it that message. Trust me, this is going to happen and it is happening in a real way. In my role, I will not tolerate the behaviour that has gone on in the past. There has been completely unacceptable behaviour by many of the collectors in many different facets of what they do. We are going to deal with every single one of those.

Deputy Lawlor asked a very valid question in regard to end-of-life waste criteria.

The work in regard to streamlining that process is ongoing, but it will come to a conclusion soon. The timelines in that regard are not what they should be and need to be dealt with. A decision will be made soon.

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