Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yes there was a cock-up in the past few days in respect of the waste collection service but the waste collection services have been unfairly targeted and criticised by many Members. In County Kerry and especially south Kerry we have a wonderful collection service provided by a privately operated company giving local employment and a very punctual service and helping the local communities to deal with waste. It operated what was called the Good Friday clean-up of the whole county, providing a service free of charge to collect bags collected by local voluntary groups along the roads and in the towns and villages. I could not stand over the service providers being tarred with the same brush because we have a wonderful service and we are proud of it. There are two or three more operators in County Kerry and we are very proud of them and this debacle was certainly not caused by them. I want that to be clearly remembered in this Chamber.

The local authority is still providing a service in Killarney town and is doing a wonderful job as well. We cannot criticise the providers because it is not fair or right. As Deputy Michael Healy-Rae said, deciding where to go with the waste will be a real problem because we are being told now that it is not cost efficient to go abroad with it any more, indeed it is not wanted. For a long time it was cheaper to go that way than it is now. We need to open up local places like Muingnaminnane around our country so people will have somewhere to go with it.

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