Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to co-sponsor this Bill which is a continuation of a campaign that I started during my time on South Dublin County Council.

In June 2016, I reported the waste management companies to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission when waste management companies raised their prices in unison after the proposed pay-by-weight scheme. A conservative estimate saw customers expected to pay an additional 43% for waste disposal than they had previously. This would have been another stealth tax on ordinary workers and families. Customers who decided to shop around and try and get a cheaper rate from alternative waste management companies were dismayed to find that any company they contacted had also increased their prices. The waste management companies were operating a cartel.

The privatisation of domestic waste collection services has failed and has resulted in a poorer quality of service, increased costs for households, negative environmental impacts and increased amounts of illegal dumping.

I grew up in north Clondalkin, an area with many socioeconomic problems, but it was cleaner then than it is now. Areas that could be used to play football or walk dogs are full of litter and the remains of fires from the burning of domestic waste. The impact of the few is having a detrimental effect on the many. However, it is not just irresponsible residents who are contributing to this negative environmental impact. There has also been an increase in commercial dumping whereby unscrupulous, unlicensed and unregulated operators collect waste at a cheaper rate and dump it wherever they see fit.

As Deputy Cullinane just said, because of the different operators, bin trucks can be coming down the streets of an estate on multiple days of the week which increases carbon output.

It is no coincidence that the areas in our country with the worst problems of litter are the most disadvantaged. I am sick of walking through parts of my area and seeing discarded rubbish around the street. This behaviour is sucking the life out of communities.

A Sinn Féin amendment to a Private Members' motion calling for the first step in the return of waste management into council control got cross-party support in the House yesterday. Today's legislation sets us on that legislative path.

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