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

This time last year, the Minister's predecessor tried to introduce a pay-by-weight scheme. The problems that arose from that saw an agreement with the waste collection industry to have a price freeze and afford an opportunity for a new pricing and management structure to be implemented. I have asked the Minister questions regularly over the course of the year because it is an area about which I have had considerable concern. This day last week, while I was asking him questions, the Minister used the opportunity to outline his new proposal, which is the abolition of the all-in flat rate over time. I fully understand why he is doing it. There are the issues of recycling, reuse and so forth. There are also the issues that have been referred to, such as dumping and all of that. However, the concern I had at that point was that we had not dealt with the core issue that we saw last year. When the pay-by-weight regime was being introduced, we saw particular price increases.

The Taoiseach spoke today about a watchdog and about how 50% of people are already paying for multiple bins, tags and so forth. Last year, it was people who had green bins, black bins and brown bins who also saw the price increase. My view and my concern is this that we do not have a functioning and competitive market. In the absence of that, we need a regulator. What convinces me of that are the potential price increases that were published last year, when individual families could compare what they would be paying going forward versus what they paid last year. The increases were not minor. They were significant. Many households were looking at double bills. I am convinced that that competitive market does not exist. The only way that we can have a fair and transparent system is through the establishment and appointment of a regulator. In the interim, during the establishment period, it is also important to continue and extend the agreement of the price freeze with the industry to afford the Minister the opportunity to establish a regulator.

I will conclude on this point. I come from an ordinary suburb of Dublin. I have pizza delivery guys, Sky and Eir all competing for business. Not one other refuse collection company canvasses looking for my business. It is not a competitive market. In the absence of that, I urge the Minister to bite the bullet on this and establish a regulator to control those prices as soon as possible.

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