Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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In a week in which waste dominated proceedings in this House, it is perhaps ironic that it is the last matter to be discussed. However, I refer to waste of a different order, pertaining to the issue of recycling facilities. This is national recycling week. Rehab and Repak have run advertisements on national and local television and radio stations and people have been induced to bring along their recycling materials by the possibility of winning a car, assuming they live in an area with a recycling facility.

There is no recycling facility in the constituency of Kildare North, where I live. Two exist in Kildare South but I live an hour's drive from the closest one. There is one in Kilcullen on a former landfill site and another in Athy, which was purpose built. Its construction was completed almost a year before it opened, because the local authority had neither the staff nor the money to do so. I wish to raise this aspect of recycling.

Earlier this year, performance indicators relating to recycling were issued on a range of 41 topics. Kildare County Council fared quite poorly with a figure of 7%, but was by no means the worst. I understand that Galway City Council performed best with a figure of almost 50%. Hence, there is a wide disparity in performance across the country.

We must go beyond performance indicators and ask why this is happening. Is it because people are not co-operating or is goodwill lacking? One factor which operates as a disincentive is the manner in which local authorities are funded. I accept that on the west coast, the argument that its infrastructure lags behind is justifiable. However on the east coast, development pressures are bringing their own problems. The Minister is familiar with this because his constituency is similar to mine in that regard.

Some local authorities have little discretion. For example, last year Kildare County Council received an increase from the local government fund which looked good on paper. However, all the additional money was taken up by the cost of buying extra water from Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council to cater for the influx of new people to the county, by the additional staff required to operate the augmented waste water treatment plants and for the benchmarking awards. No additional money was available for anything else. The expenditure was necessary, but the example demonstrates how the scope for other activities is lacking.

The fund has some weaknesses. It presumes all authorities start from the same base and that there is no progression subsequently. As guarantees were given that no local authority would lose out, the possibility of local authorities which have lagged behind receiving an increase depends on the fund's buoyancy. It does not seriously consider the impact of population increases. There is competition between the provision of traffic calming, disabled persons' grants and recycling facilities. All are needed, but when one is obliged to make choices, it partially explains why recycling has lost out in this respect.

Door to door collection appears to be the most successful means of dealing with recycling. However, local bottle banks are being inappropriately used by people leaving domestic waste beside them, which is in part a response to the introduction of the pay-by-weight system. Some bottle banks had to be taken away because of this problem, so we are losing recycling facilities. The door to door approach seems to produce the greatest dividends.

The operation of the local government fund is under review at present. I ask the Minister to examine the possibility of building an incentive into it so that issues like recycling are taken into account. I do not see how it can happen otherwise. While a view exists that recycling always saves money, it can be quite expensive to put facilities in place in the first instance. Some incentives should be built into the fund's operation to achieve the kind of return whereby performances around the country become more consistent. Perhaps this time next year, during national recycling week, we might have a better set of figures showing progress in this regard.

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I am grateful to Deputy Catherine Murphy for raising the issue. She has made a passionate case for County Kildare and I accept that. I will try to explain how the manner in which recycling is funded is somewhat different to the general fund. This could not be a better week in which to raise the issue of waste management and recycling for many reasons. I disagree that the provision of recycling facilities around the country is patchy. The progress in recycling over the past eight years has been extraordinary. People and communities have embraced it and made a success of it. For example, in 2003, which is the last year for which we have the full audited figures, almost 730,000 tonnes, or 28% of municipal waste was recycled. In 1998, the corresponding figure was 167,000 tonnes, or 9%. By any standard, that is a phenomenal record. The Deputy put her finger on it when she noted that door to door systems played a major role in that success. There are about 83,000 seats in Croke Park and if everyone in the stadium was replaced by a bail of one tonne of waste, Croke Park would be filled nine times over by the waste that has been taken out of the system by recycling. That is an extraordinary change. We have come from almost zero recycling to this in a short period of time.

The number of bring banks doubled between 1998 and 2003. I know that there are problems where people abuse the bring bank system and where bring banks are not cleared quickly enough. We now have 1,700 bring centres in operation compared to 835 in 1998. Today there are 64 civic amenity sites compared to 30 in 1998. I accept the point made by the Deputy, however, that there are none in north Kildare.

A total of 560,000 households had a separate collection for recyclables by 2003 and this has increased further since then. In 1998 the figure was 70,000 households. We have been particularly successful on packaging waste. In 1998, less than 94,000 tonnes of packaging waste, or 15% of the waste stream, was recycled. In 2003, 420,000 tonnes or 44% of packaging was recycled. All the indications are that we are on track to make the 2005 EU target of 50%. A few years ago this was regarded as unattainable.

The environment fund itself marked a significant change in the approach to State funding of waste infrastructure. The fund's income is derived from environmental levies in line with best international practice. Using the fund, a capital grants scheme established in 2002 has provided €50 million to over 90 projects, from bring banks to composting facilities, materials recovery facilities and civic amenity sites.

These projects are determined by individual local authorities in the context of their statutory responsibility for waste management planning. They are not determined on the basis of the spend for last year plus a percentage, which is how much of the funding flows to local government and which has a knock-on effect for counties like Kildare, Wicklow, Meath and Louth that surround a large conurbation like Dublin. However, this is not how the funding allocations are made in this instance. They are determined on the basis of the projects coming forward and projects that are needed. Proposals are evaluated by the Department to ensure that they fit well with overall national objectives, including the provision of recycling infrastructure right across the country. Proximity is important. There is no point in driving 40 miles to save the planet, if one is using up hydrocarbons to recycle waste.

On the general question of local authority resources, overall current expenditure by local authorities has increased dramatically since 1997. This Government has made extra resources available at an unprecedented level. For instance, between 1999 and 2005 general purpose grants doubled, which is way ahead of inflation. Objectively, there has been a real resource transfer. These grants now fund about one fifth of local authorities' current expenditure. In addition, grants for specific schemes have increased rapidly. The rapid economic growth of recent years, supported by Government policies, has meant increased income for local authorities through growth in the commercial rates base and through goods and services supplied.

The allocation of grants by my Department is carried out transparently and in a way that encourages authorities themselves to get value for money. Five year multi-annual capital investment programmes provide a structured basis for local authorities to do their work. The Deputy shares my concern for issues like local authority housing. For the first time ever, local authorities are getting five year capital funding and they are also being mandated to produce their own strategic plans. Any local authority that fails to meet its objectives from now on is failing because of something that is happening at that level and not because of something that is happening at central level.

General purpose grants are distributed on the basis of the needs of each local authority, the amount available for distribution and the income available to each authority from local sources. Factors such as population, the extent of the public road network, the cost of water supply, distribution and treatment, as well as the management and maintenance of public housing, are all taken into account in deciding on these allocations. I will encourage my Department to refine its approach, which must move away from the historical approach, whereby councils asked for what was given last year plus a percentage. Distribution must take cognisance of the evolving circumstances. I will work hard to find the funding for any local authority that comes up with a good recycling proposal.

There is a passion in Ireland for recycling. People have taken to recycling across all sectors and when we get the statistics for the WEEE directive, which came into effect in August, we will be very surprised as the tonnages of the last two weeks have surpassed all expectations. If the Deputy has concerns about the lack of facilities in her constituency, I will be willing to listen to any proposal from her or from the council.