Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Naughten's decision to phase out the all-in flat rate charging system for household waste from this autumn is typical of several of half-baked policy decisions of this Government when it bothers to make a decision. The Minister knows well that the household waste market is a cartel and that households are at the mercy of a few large operators, some of them foreign based, in this largely dysfunctional market. When the previous Government proposed a similar new crazy pricing regime in SI 24 of 2016 , it was beyond belief that there were no maximum lift and flat charges in article 20 of that document. Now after the former Minister, Deputy Coveney's continued inaction to address price gouging by waste companies, the Minister, Deputy Naughten, is announcing so-called incentivised pricing options which include a range of standing charges, per lift and per weight charges. Once again, there is no plan to address market failure of any description or even to help change consumer behaviours.

The reality is that Irish householders have tried hard to address the aims of the EU's waste hierarchy and directives, including prevention, reuse and recycling. It is notable that, with the help of a four-year derogation, we achieved the first two landfill targets of the landfill directive of 1994, that is, the 75% and 50% reductions on 1995 levels. Preliminary data seem to indicate that we have also met the third target of 35% reduction on 1995 levels by July 2016. While landfill capacity has been said to be very low, and I heard one of the Minister's colleagues say that again tonight, we have recently fired up the massive incinerator on the Poolbeg peninsula. There were question marks over whether there would be enough waste for it only a few months ago. Constituents often complain that business needs to do much more to reduce the endless packaging of modern retail products, including food items. Why has the Minister, Deputy Naughten, not taken a single initiative in that regard? Why is the polluter pays principle not being applied all across business, including our ubiquitous food takeaways and coffee shops? I note the Bill introduced by our Green Party colleague addressing the use of plastic cups in coffee shops.

In the 1990s, as chairperson of the rainbow alliance in Dublin City Council, I strongly opposed the privatisation of household waste. Colleagues and I saw the introduction of waste charges by the then city manager, Mr. John Fitzgerald, as a Trojan horse for the full privatisation of household waste. We also feared that price gouging, the unaccountability of waste companies, the non-existent regulation and all the market chaos, which we have experience and which the Minister is further threatening to inflict on us again, is all happening. None of the promises of the city and county mangers such as Mr. John Fitzgerald and Mr. John Tierney was upheld and ordinary households have paid dearly for that.

The former Minister, Deputy Kelly, told us in September 2015 that the waste management companies were in the "last chance saloon" and that a race to the bottom in waste collection has to end, but nothing has happened. This time last year we had threats of standing charges rises of up to 140% and rises of 200% to 400% by companies such as Greyhound and Thorntons.

The previous Fine Gael and successive Fianna Fáil Governments totally failed to implement the promised competitive tendering by district or the promised industry regulation by the city and county councils. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has likewise done nothing to give us a paper even on the economics of household waste pricing. With respect to the Commission for Energy Regulation, which is supposed to become the commission for regulation of utilities, the Minister could simply have added waste management to its remit and brought in some proper regulation.

My personal strong belief is that household waste management should be renationalised with perhaps a single publicly owned operation reporting to, for example, our four Dublin councils and on a regional basis in other counties. Waste management is a critical issue for householders should be included the high local property tax which we pay and which has become a significant local tax. Once again, the Minister is threatening to start another "bintifada".

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