Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I do not know if anyone has told the Minister this before, but he is in the Government so he can change the law. There is a majority in the Dáil. It can never be an answer to a question to say something cannot be done because it is not in the law. Evidently, the law can be changed and it needs to be changed to provide for public ownership and the re-municipalisation of waste collection throughout the country.

The statistics speak for themselves. According to the EPA, the municipal waste generation trend in quantity terms is going in the wrong direction and increasing steadily. Recycling levels have plateaued since 2010, at 41%, well below the EU average of 49% and below the EU target for Ireland of 55%, which is supposed to be reached by 2025. In Germany, where waste collection is municipalised, 70% is recycled. The privatisation of the bin service, which the socialist left were the only ones to fight tooth and nail against in the early 2000s, is to blame for the fact that one third of Irish households still do not have a brown bin despite this being an EU requirement for the end of this year.

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