Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Bin charges have increased by 10% since 2021. People are now facing the prospect of having to pay for their compost to be collected. This flies in the face of the excuses used at the time of imposing bin charges to encourage recycling.

The Minister of State just said local authorities have responsibility for waste collection, and one of the reasons it could it is where costs are unreasonably high, and that the power remains with the local authority. If we have local authorities that do not have the funding to provide a bin collection service, because of Government decisions we are forcing local authorities to privatise. If we look at the amount of waste they are throwing away, it has stayed the same since 2010. In fact, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, recycling has reduced, and all bin collection charges are doing now is encouraging dumping. The reality is that when families are stuck between heating and eating, their last priority is waste collection. If people have a choice of putting shoes on their children or paying for their waste collection, what would they do?

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