Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

In a significant development, Dublin City Council yesterday endorsed a motion from one of our councillors, Tina MacVeigh from People Before Profit, to re-municipalise waste management in the city. That means taking the waste management system back into public control and ownership. This very important development paves the way for addressing environmental concerns, the concerns of the city's population who have been paying inordinate charges to private waste management companies and the concerns of those who could not afford the charges when their waivers were removed. As the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment and a representative of the Government, does the Minister agree that it is time the Government legislated to support this motion to take our waste management back into public control? The motion was also supported by the management of Dublin City Council. The current approach has been a disaster for the population and the environment. We have also seen the farce of plastic being shipped to China and back again, which was both unsustainable and unjust.

See this speech in context