Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter for debate. As the Minister knows, there have been radical changes in the waste industry in the past decade. When Dublin City Council had to privatise its waste collection service last January, it was widely seen as a disaster. I remind the Minister who spoke about those who had spread misinformation in rural areas in response to the previous matter that there are irresponsible Deputies in urban areas also. The actions of the Socialist Workers Party in campaigning for the non-payment of waste charges meant that is was no longer economically viable for Dublin City Council to stay in the waste management business. That resulted in the privatisation of the service, which means we now have a poorer service.

The company that received the contract in Dublin, Greyhound, has engaged in many practices that need to be regulated. It started to distribute letters to customers last week informing them that it would have to charge €1.50 for each bag of recyclable material. That will bring an end to the practice of picking up many bags for free. The Minister will be aware that many houses in the city do not have green bins because they do not have enough space for them. Instead, they put their recyclable waste in green bags. Greyhound which makes massive profits in Ireland has refused to publish its accounts. Given that it charges €9 for a roll of six bags, this latest measure will push people back into putting recyclable waste in black bags. Black bags are not normally full in city areas. Greyhound brought the industry into further disrepute when it imposed dramatic price increases last summer. It piggy-backed on the landfill levy and tried to blame the Minister for the increases, even though they did not equate in any manner to the landfill levy. I tried to highlight this attempt to increase profits at the time.

In May this year some 4,000 tonnes of waste were found illegally stored in County Kildare. A further 2,000 tonnes of illegally stored waste were discovered in June. Last month some 1,000 bales, containing almost 1,000 tonnes of illegally stored waste, were found on a farm in north Dublin. I appreciate that the EPA is investigating these cases. For this to happen once can be considered an oversight. For it to happen twice can be considered a mistake. Now that illegally stored waste has been found three times in a single year, it must be seen as a pattern. It is clear that we need a waste regulator, just as we have regulators in areas such as the energy and communications sectors. The waste industry in the State has almost been entirely privatised. We have multiple operators in many areas across Ireland and need a regulator who could control how the industry operates. I suggest the national regulator should set overall guidelines, to be enforced by the local authorities. We will have the chance to do this when we reform local government radically. Councillors are well placed to monitor, report on and deal with these problems.

The free-for-all that we are seeing needs to be controlled. We need legislation and regulation and citizens need to have confidence in the waste industry. We need to ensure the waste stream is properly regulated and recycling is encouraged. Many of the waste companies will not collect bins unless a hefty sum of money is left on account as a deposit. If a customer wishes to change from one operator to another, he or she will lose the money that is on deposit. This is happening right across Ireland and another example of the citizen losing out in this unregulated and poorly legislated for area.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I am aware of his personal interest in waste policy and he has raised a number of important and serious issues, with which I will ask my officials to deal immediately.

Local authorities are responsible for the enforcement of environmental standards for the collection of waste. They consider applications for waste collection permits from service providers. They enforce the conditions of the permits granted on the basis of national policy and regional waste management plans. I accept the Deputy's point that we should examine the conditions attaching to these permits much more rigorously and ensure they are enforced. The treatment and management of waste material is subject to a registration and permit system by local authorities, or licensing by the Environmental Protection Agency, as appropriate. The primary purpose of the licensing, permit and registration system is to facilitate appropriate controls on waste facilities and activities in a way that ensures good and consistent waste management practice and the implementation of high standards of environmental protection. I regret to say this is not happening. The waste industry is further subject to additional regulation outside the remit of my Department. Under animal by-products legislation, for example, composting and anaerobic digestion plants which process food waste are subject to approval by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

As the Deputy knows, my Department's role is to provide a comprehensive legislative and waste policy framework through which the enforcement authorities operate. I published the Government's new waste policy, A Resource Opportunity - Waste Management Policy in Ireland, in July. It sets out the actions Ireland will take to make the further progress needed to become a recycling society, with a clear focus on resource efficiency and the virtual elimination of landfilling municipal waste, thereby minimising our impact on the environment.

Maximising the resources recovered from waste is a central principle of the policy, which contains measures to ensure that prevention, reuse, recycling and recovery are favoured to the disposal of waste, in accordance with the waste hierarchy as set out in the waste framework directive.

The performance of the household waste collection market, in particular, will be crucial to achieving our overall policy objectives and meeting our targets on landfill diversion. Under the new policy, household waste collection will be organised under an improved regulatory regime to address a number of problematic issues. Waste collection companies will have to adhere to improved standards of service, incentivise households to segregate waste and be much more transparent about their charging structures, and they will be held to account for failures under the new permitting regime. This is the key point - enforcement. At the same time, an onus will be placed on households to show how they manage their waste in an environmentally acceptable manner.

The Competition Authority is also being requested by the Government to maintain oversight of household waste collection markets and will report as part of a mid-term review of the implementation of the policy to be carried out in 2016. It is my intention that the implementation of the policy will deliver both enhanced environmental performance, a quality service for consumers and better enforcement in regard to the people collecting the waste.

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I thank the Minister and I know he is very committed to reforming the whole waste industry. We need to move very quickly because, unfortunately, there are cowboys operating in the market and this is giving a very bad reputation to the waste industry. There are many responsible waste management companies which are customer friendly and abide by good practice. They charge only on what people actually put out instead of making people prepay, they encourage recycling and they work for a better industry. However, while I believe by far the majority want to develop a sustainable industry, this is being greatly undermined by what is happening, particularly in our capital city. People are being incentivised not to recycle because they are being overcharged for recycling.

I ask the Minister to move as quickly as possible to put regulations and legislation in place. I look forward to the issue coming before the committee. At present in our cities, the local authorities can put in place by-laws stating when the citizen can place a bin on the street but they cannot make a by-law to force companies to collect within those hours. What is happening currently in the capital is that while residents have to put their bins out by 7 a.m. and they are to be collected by 7 p.m., some of these cowboys do not collect them that day and instead collect them the following day, so there are bins on the streets for two days.

This is unacceptable in a capital city. We need to empower local authorities so they can take action, and we have to do it from this House. We have to give them the powers to bring in the by-laws and the legislation. I believe passionately that we need to move quickly on this issue. If we are reforming local government, we have to ensure the councillors on the ground have the power to regulate and to put in the specifications regarding how these cowboys operate. If we delay too long, the cowboys will have undermined the very good companies which operate to high standards and best practice, and they will go out of business.

I urge the Minister to take action as speedily as possible. I will certainly facilitate him as far as possible through the environment committee and I will give any other assistance I can. Most Members see this happening on a daily basis, from Cork to Dublin to Galway. It is a national issue. These cowboys have to be put out of business. We need strong, firm legislation supported by a regulator. I urge the Minister to move as quickly as he can.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed by Deputy Humphreys about the requirement for a level playing field and a standardised service across the country. The most important person in this is the customer. The people have gone to enormous lengths to do the right thing by our waste policy in terms of reuse, recycling and recovery. It is not good enough if waste operators are flouting the enforcement procedures that are in place at present under our permit and licensing system.

Under the new waste policy, a new and strengthened regulatory regime for household waste collection will be introduced in 2013. New mandatory service standards, including the introduction of customer charters, will ensure consumers experience improved customer service from their operator. The key point, as I said, is to ensure that local authorities have the legislative wherewithal, including recourse to by-laws, to ensure this is properly enforced and implemented.

We have a lot of law in this country but we do not always have the best enforcement, and the case highlighted by the Deputy is a good example. The work of developing the new regulatory structures to give effect to the measures has commenced and my Department is engaging with the stakeholders at present in regard to the detailed design of the new system. I welcome Deputy Humphreys' co-operation in this matter on the environment committee. I hope to be in a position to bring new proposals to the committee and to the House as quickly as possible in 2013.