Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

It was announced last week that Greyhound is increasing its bin charges again. Over the last 18 months, these charges have increased from €16.50 to €30 per month. One woman has said that in June of last year she was paying €22 a month to have her bins collected by Greyhound Recycling and now expects to be paying €30 from July. This is an increase of more than 30%, which is well above the increase in the cost of living. This is a failure of privatisation. People campaigned against this in the 2000s because we knew this would happen. There were strong campaigns of non-payment in Dublin and other counties. People ended up in court and jailed over this issue. The Institute of Public Administration recently released a report on the public ownership of bin services. Dublin City Council has voted in favour of it. The unions have also come out in favour of it. Many of my constituents and others throughout the country would support the remunicipalisation of our waste services. The Government's own waste plans require changes to regulations and legislation. Will the Taoiseach look at the roadmap set out by the Institute of Public Administration, support local councils, unions and ordinary voters. and legislate for councils to take bin services back into public ownership?

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