Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Whitmore for raising the issue. Local authorities are responsible for municipal waste collection and waste management planning within their functional areas. The obligations on local authorities in relation to collecting household waste are set out in section 33 of the Waste Management Act 1996, as amended. In summary, it provides that each local authority shall collect, or arrange for the collection of, household waste within its functional area. The obligation to collect or arrange for the collection of household waste shall not apply if an adequate waste collection service is available in the local authority's functional area, the estimated costs of the collection of the waste would, in the opinion of the local authority, be unreasonably high or the local authority is satisfied that adequate arrangements for the disposal of the waste concerned can reasonably be made by the holder of the waste.

It is open to any local authority to re-enter the waste collection market as a direct service provider if it so chooses, either alongside existing permitted service providers or subject to making arrangements to replace those providers. Under section 60(3) of the Waste Management Act 1996 my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is precluded from exercising any power or control in relation to the performance by a local authority, in particular circumstances, of a statutory function vested in it.

Altering the structure of the household waste collection market was the subject of a public consultation exercise in 2011. A comprehensive regulatory impact analysis, RIA, from 2012 also considered options regarding the organisation of the household waste collection market. The RIA recognised that there were some advantages to the franchise-bidding approach, also known as competition for the market, which scored marginally higher than strengthening the regulatory regime and keeping the existing side-by-side competitive market structure or competition in the market. However, given the critical nature of the waste collection service, the risks associated with moving to franchise bidding were judged to deem this option ultimately less desirable. Noting that there was a possibility that a switch from side-by-side competition to franchise bidding could incur costs that actually made household waste collection less efficient, the RIA ultimately made the recommendation to strengthen the regulation of the market, especially in light of the risks associated with competition for the market.

The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and his Department continue to be focused on introducing measures to drive waste minimisation and improve waste segregation to help us achieve our challenging EU targets for municipal waste recycling of 55% by 2025, 60% by 2030 and 65% by 2035 and limiting landfill to 10% by 2035.

In this regard, the Minister recently signed regulations to introduce incentivised charging for the commercial sector from 1 July and his Department is currently drafting regulations to roll out bio-waste collection to all households in the State with a waste collection service.

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