Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the bona fides of the Minister in bringing forward these amendments as a genuine attempt to deal with the issues therein.

On the issue of persons who are seeking to reduce their waste, especially people who have particular needs, for instance, with incontinence, in 2017 there was a Government decision on the need to introduce a waste waiver in that regard. We have not seen this yet. It was the subject of an amendment here. If we are serious about ensuring we include everybody, I believe it would be appropriate for this Bill to deal with that issue also.

In bringing forward further legislation, which the Minister said he intends to do as things change, I ask that we would give due recognition to people who require waivers and who have no way of reducing their waste because of medical issues. I ask that we recognise those people and that consideration be given to the introduction of the waste waiver. It was a Government decision of 2017. I should know whether Government decisions fall when the mandate falls. I do not think they do but I will be guided by the Ceann Comhairle. It was a Government decision regardless of who was in government. I hope this could be revisited. I am certainly trying to put it into the mind of the Minister. There are people who would have reasonably expected a scheme for waiving fees for some household waste collection services for the benefit of households where, by reason of medical illness or disability, including an illness or disability that gives rise to the need for incontinence wear, a disproportionate amount of household waste is presented for collection.

The purpose of such a waiver would be to give recognition to those people and transpose the Government decision into legislation.

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