Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of the €75 support, which was announced by the former Minister, Deputy Naughten, on 27 June 2017, when he stated that an annual support of €75 would be introduced for persons with lifelong or long-term medical incontinence and that this support would help people to meet the average annual cost of disposal of incontinence products. That was the Minister's announcement. There was a further significant speech on 5 July 2017 when the Minister stated, when he was announcing some changes to the waste disposal regime, that the final change was to provide a Government-supported €75 per year to assist persons with medical incontinence. This was based on the average cost of disposal of 650 kg of incontinence products and was developed in consultation with industry and patient stakeholder groups.

Fast forward to September 2018, and there are a number of cases, including a specific case of a young person in my constituency who has a long-term need. I seek clarification from the Government as to the status of the €75 support which was announced by the Government in 2017 and further reinforced in 2018. Is this €75 available? Perhaps I have missed something in despatches. I do not think that I have. I need to be able to report back to my constituents whether this is happening. A sum of €75 is a significant amount of money, especially when the annual cost of waste for an average household is quite high. This would give untold support to such families who are in desperate need.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment is continuing the work of developing, with a number of stakeholders, a mechanism to provide a €75 support for persons with lifelong or long-term medical incontinence to help meet the average annual cost of disposing of medical incontinence products. Unfortunately, this process has taken far longer than originally envisaged. This delay is due to a number of issues. In particular, data protection issues have arisen since the introduction of the general data protection regulation, GDPR. The proposal relates to persons with lifelong or long-term medical incontinence. As the Deputy is aware, any information that relates to the physical health of a person is sensitive personal data and must be treated very carefully. I understand, however, that there is a commitment to introducing a support, as soon as practically possible, in conjunction with relevant agencies and stakeholders.

As outlined by the Deputy and as announced in mid-2017, mandatory per kilogram charging was not introduced for bin collection. Instead, a range of charging options were allowed, which encourage householders to reduce and separate their waste and provide flexibility to waste collectors to develop various service price offerings that suit different household circumstances. As a community, we need to keep our focus on the prevention and segregation of waste to protect our environment and to make the transition to a resource efficient and circular economy. We need to ensure that we are compliant with the targets set under EU waste legislation. This includes the new ambitious target of reducing the level of landfilling of municipal waste to less than 10% by 2035. It is important to be clear that, as a country, we have no spare landfill capacity for the disposal of household waste. The ban on flat-rate fees was necessary to incentivise householders further to recycle and compost more and to send less waste to landfill.

To assist householders, the Department has invested €3 million in education and awareness in what goes into the recycling bin and how to use the brown bin effectively. A household waste collection price monitoring group, PMG, was established in 2017 to monitor pricing developments for household waste collection services during the phasing out of flat-rate fees. The PMG has considered 13 months of data to date. While fluctuations in prices and service offerings have been observed, the overall trend is relative price stability.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, recently concluded a study on the operation of the household waste collection market. It made three main recommendations, which are to review the existing national waste policy; in that context, to establish an economic regulator for household waste collection; and to ensure that all the State's resources are co-ordinated to deliver optimal outcomes for this market. The CCPC report, combined with the ongoing work of the PMG and the finalisation of the European circular economy waste and plastics legislation framework, will inform the development of a future national waste management policy, including our environmental goals. Notwithstanding all that progress on the waste management front, there is, unfortunately, further work to be done on delivering that €75 support raised by the Deputy. It is intended, however, to progress this issue as a matter of absolute urgency in conjunction with all the relevant agencies and stakeholders.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response and I appreciate that he is taking this on behalf of another Department. It is not his own line Department. This was announced in July 2017. We are far along the road now. The GDPR issues could have been anticipated because that was coming down the line from Europe. Raising the issue of data protection is a bit of a diversion at this stage. I do not think that is an insurmountable issue. Myriad Departments handle personal detail about individuals. One could easily administer a scheme that would give €75 to every family that has an issue relating to long-term medical incontinence. It would have a massive impact on those families with regard to reducing their waste disposal costs.

I implore the Government to come back to me at some stage with a solution and timeline for this. I am not buying the argument that data protection is an issue. It is very easy to design a scheme, given the innovative nature of this country, that would easily meet the needs of the people that we are all trying to represent here. There is not a Member of this House who does not have this issue and who does not have a family in his or her constituency who would benefit from this €75 support which was announced in 2017. I ask the Minister to consult his colleagues with a view to ensuring that we can at least follow through on something that was announced and get over these hurdles, such as the data protection hurdle. I do not believe that is an issue which cannot be dealt with a little bit of energy on the part of the Government.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am aware that in seeking to put this payment in place, the Department has engaged with Family Carers Ireland, Age Action, Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Ireland, the Irish Wheelchair Association, the Disability Federation of Ireland, the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, the National Disability Authority, the National Waste Collection Permit Office, the regional waste management offices, the Irish Waste Management Association, the Department of Health, the HSE, and the Data Protection Commission.

All the stakeholders, including the Department, wish to progress this issue as a matter of urgency. I understand the Department is committed to introducing the support as soon as practicably possible. Having said that, I will pass on Deputy Sherlock's concerns to the relevant persons in the hope that the electronic payments system can be put in place as soon as possible.