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

With all of the stakeholders working together, I hope we will see real action because this problem has been going on for too long. This type of activity is very disheartening for residents who have organised and submitted their streets to the tidy districts competition. It completely destroys their confidence.

The Minister must direct Dublin City Council management to immediately remove all of the illegally dumped rubbish and the huge mounds of earth moving like a tsunami towards our constituents’ homes.An Garda Síochána needs to immediately enforce the 1996 Act and the 1997 regulations. The Minister indicated he visited the site and I know his constituency did not include the area in question until three years ago. The amenity open space and estate boundary concerned need to be restored. This area was an amenity open space and park. We all worked very hard to create the park and some of the nearby community bodies and facilities. It is outrageous that these are being threatened by this particular outbreak of dumping in the past year.

I have visited the site several times in recent months and the dumping seems to be spreading, rather than decreasing. One of our constituents told me that Dublin City Council appears to be allowing the area to turn into a favela. We do not want any favelasin our city. I have also had complaints from other parishes across Dublin Bay North about the growing menace of littering and illegal dumping. Our constituents are very upset that bags of rubbish are dropped at amenity areas such as the city and county parks and the wilderness areas along the bay area and on the Howth Peninsula.

Many people are complaining about littering caused by posters being put up for emergency meetings outside of election times. I am sure the Ceann Comhairle will echo that view. There is so much social media now it is hard to know why we need posters for every event, week in and week out throughout non-election periods.

The Minister's predecessor established a price monitoring group, PMG, in order to monitor the cost of residential waste collection when the flat rate structure was phased out. The PMG monitors 26 service providers and produces monthly reports, which I know the Minister studies. The February report showed continued increases in monthly costs for household waste collection. Six monthly comparisons showed that just two operators decreased costs while six companies increased them. The Minister supported the privatisation of waste collection services at the beginning of the household waste collection era. We have ended up with a system run by companies which are based, in many cases, off shore, and with pricing systems which are completely opaque and prices are steadily rising. It is time to end the talk: we need a bit of action.

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