Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As an inner city representative, I would like to touch on a related but very important topic, which is the privatisation of waste collection services. It simply has not worked and I would like to see the re-municipalisation of waste collection services. In my constituency of Dublin Central, this would mean bringing waste collection back under the control of Dublin City Council, with the aim of providing a much-improved service. I am thinking in particular about terraced housing and streets that are quite constrained and the possible use of collective waste services. I am regularly contacted by constituents about this issue and particularly about problems they are having with private waste collection services. These problems include service providers not collecting waste when they should, collecting late at night or not at all, as well as the inadequate plastic bags that the companies provide, which are left outside people's homes for collection, being opened by wildlife, including gulls and foxes. The list of issues goes on and on and we need to fundamentally rethink the consequences of the privatisation model for this important service. We need to begin to move towards publicly-provided waste collection services that deal with households in all situations.

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