Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 6:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

"notes:

— the importance of incentives to encourage waste reduction and recycling so that Ireland's dependency on landfill is reduced and avoids the need for new or expanded landfill facilities;

— the ongoing difficulties in dealing with the amount of household and municipal waste being collected which resulted in the need for emergency landfill measures to be taken twice last year to ensure that household bins could continue to be collected;

— that the amount of municipal waste going to landfill has increased in 2015 and 2016;

— that in the absence of further appropriate action by Government, industry and consumers there is a real risk of insufficient capacity to accept 280,000 tonnes of waste by 2020;

— the importance of a properly funded and consistent awareness and education campaign for the general public about waste management, reduction and recycling;

— the need for continued focus on waste reduction initiatives from Government and industry that will cut down on packaging and help consumers create less waste;

— that, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA, food waste is costing Irish householders €700 each yearly;

— the crucial need for an efficient, cost-effective waste collection processing sector;

— that waste collectors already have obligations under competition and consumer protection law, including adequate notice of changes to terms and conditions of existing contracts, clear information on consumers' rights to terminate their contracts, clear and accurate information to consumers prior to entering into new contracts, and avoiding anti-competitive agreements;

— that household waste collection operates in a commercial marketplace and that the State should not be involved in setting prices, other than ensuring that pricing structures incentivise waste prevention and segregation;

— that current European Union, EU, obligations oblige the State to reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste going to landfill in 2020 by 65% compared to 1995;

— the challenging EU targets for reducing waste going to landfill which are currently being negotiated in Brussels, which, based on the European Commission proposals, would require the amount of total municipal waste going to landfill to be reduced to 10% by 2030;

— the need to take action now to prevent the State from being fined daily by the EU if targets are not met;

— the anti-social and unacceptable level of illegal dumping in urban and rural areas;

— the importance of incentivised, fair and transparent pricing structures which are environmentally sustainable, are designed to reduce the amount of residual waste going to landfill, provide best value for money for the consumer and will assist in decoupling economic growth with increases in waste generation; and

— that over half of household customers are already on an incentivised pricing system;

welcomes:

— the phasing-out of flat rate fees charges for kerbside household waste collection over the next 15 months as people enter or renew contracts, as an essential step to reduce our reliance on landfill for residual waste, in line with established waste policy that the household waste collection sector will operate pricing structures designed to incentivise environmentally sustainable behaviours by households in terms of waste reduction and segregation;

— giving flexibility to service providers to offer a wider choice of incentivised domestic waste collection charging structures, which will enable households to manage their waste costs and to prevent and separate their waste;

— the provision of a financial support to persons with lifelong-long-term medical incontinence to help meet the cost of disposal of medical incontinence wear, and for families in genuine hardship;

— the roll-out of food-organic 'brown' bins;

— an anti-dumping initiative to support the clean-up of dumping black-spots and to target those who engage in this illegal practice through appropriate enforcement actions and the use of overt and covert surveillance equipment, drone technology and other enforcement tools;

— the expansion of the EPA's 'stop food waste' campaign, as well as the launch of a food waste charter in March 2017, and an action group on wasted food in the retail sector;

— the student-led 'green schools' programme, which promotes long-term, whole-school action for the environment with involvement from the wider community and has resulted in diverting 4,700 tonnes of waste from landfill in a single academic year;

— the Repak 'recycle and change for the better' schools programme, launched in the last school term, which educates our future generations about the benefits of best recycling practices, changing behaviours towards recycling and ultimately reducing the amount of waste going to landfill and the level of recycling bin contamination;

— the introduction of a new scheme to manage end-of-life vehicles to stop the dumping of vehicles;

— the imminent launch of a new scheme to manage waste tyres, to tackle the widespread dumping of tyres in rural areas;

— the ongoing awareness and education campaign by the regional waste management planning offices to assist householders in reducing their waste and recycling more effectively; and

— the role of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission in the enforcement of competition and consumer protection law, the promotion of consumer and economic welfare, and their role in investigating and challenging practices that are damaging to consumers and-or the wider economy and bringing anti-competitive behaviour and practices that are harmful to consumers to an end where necessary by court actions; and

calls on the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to immediately establish a pricing watchdog monitoring unit that will provide monthly reports on pricing developments and to ask the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to report on the operation of the household waste collection market in order to inform the future development of national waste management policy before year end, which will provide an evidence base to establish a regulator to prevent price gouging."

We live in an era where "fake news" can often inform public debate as much as reality and hard facts. There is an onus on all of us who are serious about how we deal with waste to ensure that the public debate is founded on hard facts and reality. One of those realities is that we must act now to prevent a return to an over-dependence on landfill. As a Minister and Deputy, it would be inexcusable for me to do nothing and to allow a situation to develop whereby household bins go uncollected on our streets because there is nowhere to bring waste. That is what is motivates these proposals and that is why I have listened carefully to those who want to contribute constructively to that debate. I am looking to implement Deputy Curran's proposals from last week on customer information and Senator Ardagh's proposals from last month on litter fines.

For this reason and to acknowledge the concerns of some households, I will establish a pricing watchdog monitoring unit that will provide monthly reports on pricing developments and I will ask the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, to report on the operation of the household waste collection market. This will inform the future development of national waste management policy before year end, which will provide an evidence base to establish a regulator to prevent price gouging. This unit will comprise representatives from the CCPC, my Department, a consumer representative from an organisation such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and an external economic expert with market knowledge.

I have been saying clearly for some time that I am not introducing a mandatory pay-per-kilo model. Such a model is too restrictive and would not be the most appropriate model for certain household profiles. Indeed, I have expressed my own concerns regarding those with lifelong or long-term medical incontinence. Over half of households currently on a kerb side waste collection are already on an incentivised pricing option and are happy to continue with this model. In fact, and this is a point that has not been sufficiently emphasised, there will be no change in the situation of those people as a result of the measures I am introducing with the exception of those using medical incontinence wear who will get an additional €75 discount per person.

Over the past 12 months, my Department and I have engaged with a wide variety of different stakeholders. As a result, the Government made a decision last week on the future of the household waste collection market. As I stated at the outset, there is insufficient capacity to deal with household waste unless we make some changes and either we change the amount of waste being presented by householders or we build additional facilities to deal with the waste. The choice facing us is stark. We have moved in this country from having a landfill in each local authority area to having only four landfills currently accepting household municipal waste. None of us wishes to revert to the situation we had previously and so difficult decisions are necessary.

Flat rate fees are not a good option to encourage behaviour change as it does not matter how often the household presents bins and it also does not matter how much waste is in the bin presented. This is why flat rate fees are being phased out over the next 15 months. The second change facilitated under last week's announcement is the roll-out of the organic, or brown, bin to households in communities of greater than 500 people. I am sure Ballymote will fall into this category. This will encourage households to minimise the amount of waste they generate and segregate the remaining waste. This is to ensure that the minimum waste possible is presented in the residual, or black, bin. The final change is to provide a Government support of €75 per year to assist persons with medical incontinence. This is based on the average cost of disposal of 650 kilograms of incontinence products and was developed in consultation with industry and patient stakeholder groups.

It is important to point out that emergency measures were needed twice last year to deal with the capacity crisis that took place. If emergency measures had not been taken, it would not have been possible to have people's bins collected. This is an ongoing issue. We need to deal with the problem or we will be in a situation where by 2020, we will have no facilities available to deal with two months of waste collection. Surely nobody wants to see bins left uncollected for the months of July and August. Rhetoric and grandstanding will not change this, and decisions are required. We are also facing challenging EU targets and we need to incentivise households to do the right thing and to reduce the amount of residual waste we generate. Failure to meet an existing or future target leaves the State open to infringement proceedings and potentially punitive fines.

The changes the Government is making to the proposed mandatory per kilo charging system means that there is the potential for more competition in the market. Rather than only being able to offer a per kilo rate, companies can now offer a range of incentivised pricing options. Examples of these include a per kilo charge, a lift fee and per kilo charge, weight band charging or a weight allowance plus per kilo surcharge for excess weights.

Labour Deputies have proposed that the EPA should replace local authorities and run competitions for waste collection. However, when Deputy Kelly was Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, he did not introduce competition for the market and he did not agree with the introduction of a regulator as he launched pay-by-weight in 2015.

The EPA is an environmental regulator and, therefore, it has no expertise in economic or pricing regulation. It would not be advisable to divert the EPA from its primary goal of improving Ireland’s environment. People Before Profit Deputies want to turn back time and remunicipalise waste collection and abolish all charges. However, it is clearly unrealistic to manage waste for free. Who will pay for those services? If remunicipalised waste is to be environmentally sustainable, why should a good recycler pay the same as someone who makes no effort to reduce waste?

Sinn Féin claims that this new arrangement unfairly impacts on vulnerable customers. Half of households are already using the new arrangements. However, we are providing a support for incontinence products that is based on the weight of these products to every family throughout the country. We are rolling out more organic and food bins so that families can divert more waste from landfill. It is important to point out that every year, on average, a typical family in Ireland throws away €700 worth of food, the majority of which is going into the black bin. There is a significant opportunity for people to change that practice. Families can choose a lift charge option that gives them certainty on cost if they put their bin out once per month and there is nothing in the new arrangement that would prevent a local authority from implementing a waiver scheme in its area.

The changes I have announced will allow for far greater competition than the option for a single pricing plan, which would have restricted competitors and what they could offer. What I have announced means no change for half of households in the market using a kerbside collector and, for the other half, the operators can offer a variety of plans as long as they incentivise waste reduction and segregation. If a company is not offering what the market wants, it is open to a competitor to offer a different plan which meets market demand. Open competition and pricing options drive prices down.

The basic message to households is to think about the waste they produce. When price plans are offered to less than half of the market not currently on an incentivised plan from autumn this year to autumn next year, it will make some demands on households. To control waste costs, it will be necessary for households to minimise the waste they generate and segregate the remaining waste properly. We have to make changes and it is only right that we move to a situation where people produce less waste and throw away less. Unless people want to see the re-emergence of landfills in every local authority area, we need, collectively, to make the transition from taking little notice of what goes into the black bin to being conscious of what we are dumping.

What we are doing is most certainly not about imposing financial hardship on families - far from it. Nobody leaves lights and the immersion on anymore when there is an incentive to turn them off. This is a similar behavioural change that we need to introduce in the waste area. We in Ireland were the first to introduce behavioural changes in relation to plastic bags and it worked. Using our bins properly will not only make a difference to our waste costs, but it will also make an enormous difference to our environment and our future. I look forward to hearing the constructive suggestions coming from the Deputies and I commend the amendment to the House.

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