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

Over 20 years have passed since bin charges and the privatisation of refuse collection were introduced. All of our warnings about what that would mean have come to pass. We were defeated in the campaign against privatisation but everything we said has happened. The waivers went, the charges went up to a point where people are now faced with paying over €300 a year, we had full-scale privatisation and a collapse in workers' conditions, recycling levels have plateaued at the level of 2010 and have not increased, one third of households still do not have access to brown bins and the incidence of dumping has increased. It has been a disaster for workers, households and the environment where you have multiple bin trucks on different days going into the same estates. It makes no sense for anyone apart from the profiteering private companies.

There is a growing movement for remunicipalisation of refuse collection, with trade unions and multiple councils, including Dublin City Council, calling for that. Legislation is needed. I do not want the Minister for State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, to shirk this and put it back on the councils. The Government needs to take action so this can happen.

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