Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to speak to this motion this evening and I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Coveney on his appointment. I also congratulate the Ministers of State, Deputies Seán Kyne and Damien English on their appointments. Waste disposal has been a huge issue for many years. From my time on the county council my understanding is that the problems are around land fill, the unavailability of landfill and the whole area of recycling. We must try to educate around reuse and recycling.

I thank the Minister for his intervention in the current situation. The former Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly left us in a fine mess here when he told us all that 87% of households would have a decrease in charges but nobody believed that only himself, and I do not think even he believed it. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, has taken the initiative to bring the private operators in for talks and to freeze charges for a 12 month period. The introduction of a billing system is also welcome where customers can see clearly how the introduction of a pay by weight system compares to how they currently pay. They will see displayed clearly how it will affect them and how, if they are recycling, reusing and cutting down their waste, they could bring the weight down and get cheaper bills.

Carers must be looked after, those who care for people who are using incontinent pads such as the elderly, infirm and younger people who may have disabilities and whose needs are ongoing. We must also think of big families. We are hardly going to put the carers back to washing nappies as they did back in the fadó, fadó. People have to be treated seriously.

Waste is a huge problem and the polluter pays concept is a proper one. Polluters must be made to pay. We have a huge issue. In my own village last night we had a spring clean - a few month late but the weather last Monday stopped the clean-up then. I salute those who do the Tidy Towns. We had a huge turnout. I compliment the people in the Tidy Towns groups and those schemes who do a lot of work in tidying up litter. We must deal with the people who do not want to pay and who fly-tip and dump and expect the middle class to pay for everything.

I wish the Minister well with the proposal and I hope he will have constructive talks. He is passing his baton on to Minister for Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources, Deputy Naughten and I know he will be well able to handle it as well. However, we must be realistic. We cannot be exporting our waste as we are doing at the moment. We only have weeks left of landfill in the State and it is not an option to export it. It must be looked at sensibly. We must educate our young people and maybe young people can educate us older people who have dirty ways. I will now hand over to my colleagues.

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