Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

One of the concerns about the process is that the major focus of attention was on the amendments that were related to water. This area required a great deal of scrutiny and I cannot overstress how frustrating the inadequacy of the process is. People have changed their habits. I know people who have reluctantly ended up with an ordinary bin and the benefit was that they received a recycling bin that would allow them to reduce their general waste. There was a particular mindset in establishing this behaviour and the Bill will change it. The amendments require thinking and consideration, which we are not giving them. They may reverse some of the behaviour and create resentment in the way Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh outlined. People will feel they are doing something towards the responsible disposal of waste but will now be charged individually. It is not an insignificant change in terms of habit forming and it is not receiving the consideration and scrutiny it requires.

Some provisions regarding the behaviour of some of the waste collection services could have been included. In my area it is a constant source of complaint. People say they cannot get a night's sleep because different waste collectors come at different hours of the morning, perhaps at 5 a.m., 6 a.m. or 7 a.m., or, perhaps, to pass each other out. It might have been possible to deal with the matter in the context of the Bill. It would have been nice to have been sure by having a proper Committee Stage debate on it. When the service was transferred to the private sector, the waiver scheme that had been in place where there had been a local government charge took account of people who were unable to pay. As disposable incomes have declined, the amount of waste in ditches, byroads and rural areas has, unfortunately, increased. I do not need to tell the Minister of State who comes from a rural constituency that it is very expensive to remediate. While I will not defend anybody dumping, when people are given no options, it happens. It is very costly to clean it up but also in terms of the visual and environmental damage to the countryside.

There is not one recycling centre in the whole of Kildare North which has a population of 120,000. The services are not available, even in places that have a decent population. Owing to this inadequacy, people do not all have a choice to do something about disposing of waste in a responsible way. A mapping exercise needs to be undertaken to examine the issue in a more formal way rather than leaving it to the luck of a particular town that may be associated with a recycling centre. The amendments required more explanation and scrutiny, which a Second Stage and a Committee Stage debate could have facilitated. The Minister made a number of positive comments on the last group of amendments and the new regime to be implemented. While I am far from saying everything in it is negative, habit changing provisions that might be detrimental to what the Government thinks it is trying to achieve have not received enough scrutiny.

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