Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:notes:

— the steady increase of charges for waste collection and the removal of waivers since the privatisation of waste management;

— the recent outrageous plans to increase the standing charges for the collection of household waste that are proposed by many private waste management companies;

— the severe hardship these rises will inflict on many households and families, particularly the disabled and those on low incomes; and

— the dramatic increase in numbers of households reducing, reusing and recycling over recent years and that the plans to increase these charges flies in the face of the so-called "polluter pays" principle;

calls on the Government to:

— immediately take action to prevent private waste management companies from implementing the planned increases;

— ensure that the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government meets with the said companies as a matter of urgency;

— ensure that standing charges cannot be increased out of line with the consumer price index;

— implement rules for maximum pay by weight charges of 11 cent for residual household kerbside waste, 6 cent for food and bio waste and zero cent for recyclables per kilo; and

— reinstate waivers for pensioners, disabled persons, carers, all those whose primary income comes from social welfare payments and low-paid workers in receipt of family income supplement;

and makes the following changes to page 13, item (III) in section 20 "Other conditions to be attached to waste collection permits" of S.I. No. 24 of 2016:

— delete "not less than" and replace with "not greater than"; and

— insert "and also ensure that any fixed or standing charge does not increase in any one year by an amount any greater than the consumer price index as calculated by the Central Statistics Office" after "of the Act"’.

This the first Private Members' business for the Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit and we considered it most appropriate to raise this issue. In the space of two weeks, after I first mentioned it, the issue has become a national hot potato for the Government. Indeed, it is probably a very good example of the type of Government we have, which is one of obfuscation, suspension and one that fears mass movements and people power. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, said a week ago that it did not need another protest movement on the streets, such as the water charges movement. That is exactly what it would get if it did not deal with this issue. An amendment to the motion has been tabled by the Right2Change Deputies which we are happy to accept. There is also an amendment tabled by the Government which I will discuss comprehensively shortly.

First I refer to the news today that the Government and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, have met with the waste management industry and worked out an agreement which will freeze the bin charges for a year and, through transparency in waste bills over a period of time and a big education campaign, the population will be won over and convinced that it is a great way to go and that it must be done to control the waste management industry. My first response is that we have included in the motion a form of secondary legislation which we are asking the House to pass. The reason is that we do not have an iota of belief in a gentlemen's agreement with an industry which does not contain a single gentleman.

As a result that gentlemen's agreement will not be worth the paper it is written on. Instead, we need some kind of legislation that puts a cap on the annual charge, or the service charge, as it is sometimes called; that puts a maximum on pay by weight instead of having a minimum for the pay by weight structures in the last statutory instrument; and that reinstates waivers not just for recipients of HSE payments who need nappies, etc., but all disabled persons, pensioners, carers, those whose primary income comes from social welfare and low-paid workers who rely on the family income supplement. We think this important.

I went to prison over the bin charges along with 24 or 25 others. I did not go there for the craic. I went there because we were protesting day and night and firmly believed that the reason we needed to step back from the charges was because it would lead to privatisation. What we are witnessing is another Irish Water debacle because that is exactly what would have happened with water had it gone through. Instead of that, we are at the point where this Government is in crisis because of the threat of privatisation of an essential service. The Government is suspending the implementation of the new bin charges, it has become a Government of suspensions. I include the support of Fianna Fáil in that if it votes to back the Government on this on Thursday. Its role will then be shown up as being akin to the role of Fine Gael rather than something separate.

We want binding legislation imposed on the waste management industry. In this regard we hope the Government amendment will be defeated. The Government talks about looking at a commitment to a public awareness campaign for the first half of 2016. The commitment that the Government would have a public awareness campaign was given in late 2014 but, of course, it backed off from that because of the number of people on the streets fighting against Irish Water. It is now revisiting that in the hope that people will be sold the lie that pay by weight is the only way to go. In its amendment, the Government has completely ignored that Thorntons has increased the standing charge by 100% while Greyhound has increased it by up by 200%. I have e-mails from people in other parts of Ireland, including Tipperary, which I am sure Deputy Healy will talk about later, where the standing charge has increased by 400%. Can the Minister deal with the question of the standing charge because the Government amendment does not contain a single reference to it? It is all about pay by weight and nothing else.

There is another element in the Government amendment that is very worrying. It says that a price freeze for customers for the next 12 months based on their current pricing plans is agreed by the industry. What about young people or anybody who is not on a plan at the moment but who joins a plan within the next 12 months? That is not spelled out. Is the Minister telling us that what is contained here is further discrimination against young people because it is most likely to be young people who are buying a home for the first time, as distinct from renting, who will be the ones who are bound to take up a contract with the waste management companies? We need that spelled out. Will those who will enter into a contract in the next 12 months be penalised and treated differently to the rest of the population who are currently on contracts?

The last point to note about the Government amendment is that it relies on a commitment from the waste management industry. There is a series of questions to be asked about this industry. I live in Ballyfermot. A big company called Thorntons operates at the back of where I live. Thorntons bale all the food waste from all of the McDonald's restaurants, hospitals and college canteens in the Dublin area. Thorntons have spent quite a bit of money trying to deal with the pollution that this causes but it has not fully addressed it. Every time we complain to the EPA, we get fobbed off. I have received dozens of e-mails from people as far as Kilconnell in County Galway where Greenstar has left a complete mess of environmental destruction and it is the local authority that is spending the money to clean it up. One could look at Panda in County Meath where the local population has been campaigning to stop a major pollutant being built in its area.

A recent edition of "Prime Time" on Indaver in County Kildare showed how this industry is is unaccountable and out of control and is not managed or curtailed by the Government in any way. It is now pushing up the prices for the ordinary consumer by an extraordinary amount and there is no reference to it in the Government amendment or the Minister's public statements. The Minister wants us to sit back and look at how pay by weight might work out but he will not deal through legislation with what amounts to a cowboy industry that has been completely out of control. A total of 41 companies are signed up to the Irish Waste Management Association. This is a small country. One has to ask why are 41 companies are getting in on the act. It is because they are making vast profits. Most of them are registered offshore. We cannot see what are their profits or the tax they pay yet they are coming after the taxpayer to deepen and increase the size of their pockets.

I ask the Minister and the rest of the House to support this motion and the amendment by Independents4Change because in the immediate term, we need to control these cowboys and stop these charges being implemented. In the long run we must examine the waste management industry in this country, its legacy, what it is up to and where it is going. We need to appoint a regulator and, as I said to the Taoiseach a week ago, a committee to sit on these people and this issue and make sure our society is dealt with in an environmentally friendly way and that the cost is not passed on to those who can least afford it.

See this speech in context