Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

In these amendments we are dealing with the other Bill being rammed through in the pre-existing Bill that has nothing to do with water charges or waste. It is a substantial piece of work which deserves its own process of scrutiny, not the 40 minutes we have been allocated, after which it will be law. The Government is dealing with the fruits of bin charges and the privatisation of waste collection services. Deputy Aengjs Ó Snodaigh has referred to the crazy situation in which multiple trucks travel down the same small streets, on the same or different days. It is thoroughly inefficient and anti-environmental and there is an anti-worker race to the bottom in this extremely cut throat industry. It is an attempt to put some laws in the jungle that is the waste industry. However, amendments Nos. 14 and 15 are missing a number of important aspects.

Amendment No. 14 outlines the rules whereby local authorities can review waste collection permits and some vital provisions are missing, in particular, the power to review waste collection permits for a breach of workers' rights. I ask the Minister of State to comment on the reason for the omission and whether she agrees it should be in place. As Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh said, there has been an incredible race to the bottom in the industry.

The Greyhound dispute was a clear example of a unionised workforce being attacked in a brutal way with massive pay cuts and being forced to fight tooth and nail to resist. After an heroic struggle, the workers managed to push back against the company but it was part and parcel of the race to the bottom in the industry. The companies involved in this sector compete on the basis of wages and working conditions. It is vital that local authorities are given the ability to review waste collection permits for breaches of workers' rights. Local authorities should also be able to vary the pricing mechanism applied by waste companies. Amendment No. 15 provides for a requirement to respect workers' rights, which unfortunately is missing from the legislation as it stands.

The Bill obliges waste collectors to charge a fee based on weight, which could result in significantly higher prices for some people. What is the justification for that provision? I recognise the environmental argument but is this the fairest way to charge people for waste?

During the debate on earlier amendments, a number of Deputies referred to the notion that the campaign for the non-payment of bin charges, with which I was involved, somehow led to the privatisation of waste services. They claim that the campaign of non-payment of water charges is giving rise to a similar danger that water services will be privatised. I will take this opportunity to skewer that line of argument. If the campaign of non-payment of bin charges had been successful, waste collection would not have been commodified because companies would not been able to make money out of this area. The necessary precondition for the privatisation of waste collection and the jungle that the industry has become was the introduction of charges for bin collection. We heard exactly the same arguments with the then Government, which tried to assure us bin charges were unrelated to privatisation and would remain at a relatively low rate. The rates massively increased soon afterwards, the waivers were quickly forgotten and privatisation created the disaster that now blights the industry. The blame for that disaster lies with the then Government rather than those who campaigned against bin charges.

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