Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The EU waste management policy highlights the need to reduce waste and dumping, and to reach our recycling targets. I highlight the campaign led by Sinn Féin councillor and European election candidate Daithí Doolan to bring the bins back into public ownership. Monthly bin charges jumped by 48% last year. Customers are charged for brown bin collections. These price hikes are being driven by greed. In the midst of a crisis caused by the spiralling cost of living, price gouging puts further pressure on families already struggling to pay for mortgages, gas, petrol and electricity.

When prices go up for waste collection, illegal dumping follows. The area in which I grew up in north Clondalkin had many social problems but was clean when compared with how it is now. Dumping started getting out of hand when the bin service was privatised. That led to a considerable increase in illegal dumping. This has created added expenditure for our local authorities and that money could be used to clean up our areas and invest in communities.

The solution is clear. The domestic waste collection services must be brought back into public ownership. This would ensure that householders are no longer the victims of companies whose only motivation is profit and greed. If local authorities took back waste collection services, costs would be hugely reduced and money would be put back into people's pockets. It is time for the Government to step in, starting with the introduction of legislation to allow councils to take waste services back into public ownership. The privatisation of waste management companies has already happened in other OECD countries. Can this issue be raised in Europe? Will the Minister of State bring back to this House the benefits that might be found?

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