Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I was a member of Clonmel Corporation when the authority introduced domestic waste charges at £5 per year. I opposed the charge on the basis that it was the thin end of the wedge and it would lead to charges of £300 or £400 per family. I also argued the waiver scheme for low-income families and those with health problems would be abolished over time. I stated that as sure as night follows day, it would lead to the privatisation of the waste collection service. Of course, I was ridiculed and laughed at, with one councillor firing a box of matches at me across the table and saying the cost would not even come to the price of a box of matches per week. I was proven correct on all counts. The privatisation of domestic waste has been an unmitigated disaster, both for the public and the environment. It has led to increased costs and it has fleeced low and middle-income families while duplicating services and producing widespread dumping.

This pay-by-weight proposal is not about recycling. We already have higher recycling rates than the European Union average, and we have already exceeded EU targets for electrical and electronic waste. This proposal is about making more profit for private companies and heaping further austerity on low and middle-income families. There is no provision in this system, for example, for the reduction of the large amount of packaging associated with modern production. Many private companies operating in this sector are engaged in a race to the bottom with regard to wages and conditions of employment. The State is forced to subsidise these very profitable companies through the family income supplement. Privatisation has been an abject failure and we must now hand back domestic waste collection services to local authorities to operate as a public service and abolish all domestic waste charges.

See this speech in context