First of all say, apart from ideology or whatever, we need to analyse what has happened in terms of waste in this country over the last 20 years. The Deputy has said that she opposed what transpired in 2003. I was reading recently Mark Henry's book In Fact: An Optimist's Guide to Ireland at 100. We have made extraordinary progress in terms of recycling, in terms of reducing our dependency on landfill and in terms of how we manage waste.

Irrespective of whether it is private, public or whatever, the story around waste in Ireland has been one of continuous progress over the past two decades. Of that, there is no doubt. I know this because I led campaigns to close landfills. One landfill that I was anxious to close is now an amenity park, Tramore Valley Park in Cork city. It was a horrible dump at one stage. In fact, there were proposals to produce another landfill to replace it. That alternative landfill never got developed because there was no need for it due to our household recycling efforts. That needs to be acknowledged in the first instance before we commit ourselves to wholesale renationalisation of the service.

I accept the point that at times, because of the competition that the Deputy has spoken about, you can have situations in housing estates where there is a proliferation of different companies going through such estates. I acknowledge that point. There is always room, in terms of regulating markets, etc., to deal with that but the fundamental objective has to be to reduce and minimise waste and then ensure it is recycled, etc.

As the Deputy will be aware, in mid-2017, the then Government decided to phase out flat-rate fees for household waste collection. Collection companies are required to charge fees which incentivise households to minimise waste and to segregate their recyclable and organic waste from residual waste. In the interests of encouraging further waste prevention and greater recycling, flat-rate fees for kerbside household waste collection were phased out over that period.

The price monitoring group for household waste collection, which monitored the market up to the end of 2020, found that prices in the market were broadly stable. Data from the group showed that offerings in the market had coalesced around eight common price plans with the most common being a service charge with a weight allowance plus excess charges above that particular allowance. There is no requirement for a collector to charge fees on the organic bin but, of course, it is open to companies to decide how to structure their pricing plans.

We will keep the situation under review. From an overall Government perspective, we have done a lot to try to assist people in respect of the cost of living more generally and we monitor charges across the economy.

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