John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We raised this issue yesterday during questions to the Minister. The problem is that the Government has now distanced itself by stating that the industry will charge as it sees fit and that the Government is not playing an active part in that. That is a significant change on what has gone on over the previous 12 months when it entered an agreement. It was based on the actions of the previous Minister, which proposed a minimum charge per kilogram of waste. The industry was going to put up prices significantly and an agreement was put in place for a temporary price freeze. That is now gone and people have every right to be concerned about what is going to happen because it was visited on them this time last year. It is not sufficient to walk away and say that we are not in a position to interfere. The Government must take an active role to ensure that any future price increases are manageable and modest and not the prices that were presented to us this time last year.

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