Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein)
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38. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans for the implementation of pay-by-weight bin charges; and the protections that will be in place for low-income households. [6092/17]

Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein)
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I ask the Minister to comment on pay by weight for household refuse disposal, in particular the protections available for low-income households.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The charges applied by waste management companies are a matter for those companies and their customers, subject to compliance with the applicable contract, consumer and environmental legislation. Matters relating to consumer legislation fall under the remit of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.

My Department is undertaking a review of pricing structures for household waste collection. This includes the roll-out of pay-by-kilogramme charges which were scheduled during the summer of 2016. The review is also looking at the possible future pricing structures to incentivise the prevention and segregation of household waste. The review will consider more than one form of incentivised pricing structure. This approach will facilitate the service providers in offering all households a range of options to manage and control their waste costs. As with any new initiative, clear and effective communication with households is critical, and it is my intention that a comprehensive awareness and education campaign be rolled out in advance of the introduction of any potential new incentivised pricing system.

All sectors, including businesses, farming and households, need to engage positively in the move towards a resource efficient world. A throwaway culture is no longer sustainable. We will all need to change the way we work, travel, heat our homes, produce our goods and services, prepare our food and dispose of our waste.

Incentivised pricing for domestic waste aims to encourage householders to prevent, reduce and segregate their waste to reduce our impact on the environment and our reliance on landfill waste disposal. Encouraging householders to reduce and recycle waste will be an important initiative in terms of helping to address the landfill capacity emergencies which occurred in 2016 as well as meeting our targets and obligations under current and future EU legislation.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein)
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In December, there were suggestions in the media that the Minister was considering scrapping pay-by-weight waste disposal. He has clarified that it has been delayed but will be introduced in mid-2017. Is that correct? In 2016, people entered into agreements with companies at the start of the year and paid up for the year but some of those companies changed the rules halfway through and wanted to move people to pay by weight. There is confusion about what will happen. I believe these matters are better dealt with by local authorities who should be in the driving seat.

The volume of waste is a huge problem and fly tipping has become an epidemic. It is not acceptable for anybody to dump rubbish out of the back of a car or van or any other vehicle. These are normally fairly new vehicles, not bangers. Those are the issues in respect of the timeline and its cost.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Deputy Stanley is right that the local authorities have a crucial role to play in this respect. That is why the waste management planning lead authorities and the enforcement regional lead authorities engage directly with the local authorities about waste.

The Deputy is correct about illegal dumping. That is very frustrating. We have made a specific additional allocation. I will make an announcement later this month dealing specifically with illegal dumping which is taking place throughout the country. The Deputy is right to say it is not necessarily low income households who do this. This irresponsible dumping, no matter who is doing it, is totally unacceptable. I am trying, working with the local authorities and the waste contractors, to put a range of incentivised pricing structures in place. Some will meet the needs of families, some those of older people but there will be a suite of pricing options available.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein)
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If I hear the Minister correctly he says he will give more money to the local authorities to help them deal with the problem. In parts of Laois where people used to dump rubbish in ditches and drains they are now dumping it on the hard shoulders. There was a black sack in the middle of the road near Ballybrittas after Christmas.

The best way to help households is to stop the production chain. Pay by weight is a problem for low income households, particularly those who have heavy waste, those where there are young children, disabled people or large families. That has to be factored into any new pricing structure. It is too late if we start with the householder because the packaging has already been produced. We need to deal with the manufacturer, the wholesaler and the retailer in order not to have to bring home packaging. I had to argue with a shopkeeper recently when I bought a pair of shoes. The shopkeeper told me I had to take the box. I did not want the box. All I wanted was the pair of shoes and laces to tie them. I almost had to have an argument to get the shopkeeper to hold on to the box. That is what we need to stop.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Deputy Stanley is perfectly correct about that. We have to work on preventions, and one of the initiatives I want to focus on this year is food waste. There is huge potential to reduce the volumes of food waste.

The Deputy is right about unnecessary packaging. That is the objective of the circular economy. My Department is working with other Departments in the context of the procurement process to consider the whole-of-life cost of a product rather than the point of purchase.

On the broader question of the type of pricing structures, I am very conscious of the issues and that we need to make sure there are pricing schemes in place. This is not a question of tax but of putting a system in place to encourage every household, whether an individual or a large family, to reduce the amount of waste it produces. We hope to have a system to facilitate that.