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

I hear what the Deputy says. First, we are open to considering any suggestion or idea to reduce the generation of waste in the first place. That must be the number one priority. The difficulty with the Deputy's suggestion is that the logistical cost involved in collecting, segregating and managing waste for 2,000 houses would make it very expensive for the houses involved. As the Deputy is aware, there are only four landfill sites in the country. We have reduced the number from 24 in the previous decade and by the end of this year will be down to three landfill sites. My priority as Minister is to try to minimise the amount of waste going into landfill sites. We want to reduce the generation of waste in the first place, but where it is generated, we want to make sure it does not go into landfill sites. That requires scale in the segregation of waste, not just green waste but also brown waste and the residual waste that is put into the black bin so as to minimise the amount of material going into landfill sites.

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