Michael McCarthy (Labour)

I understand what the Minister is attempting to do in the Bill. Waste management is not what it should be in many respects. Responsibility for the protection of the environment comes under a number of areas. Obviously the statutory responsibility lies with local authorities, but the unusual High Court case which ruled that a local authority was legally obliged to collect waste caused its own difficulties.

My division of Cork County Council has introduced a successful wheeled bin system and we recently opened a state-of-the-art civic amenity site, the cost of which was almost €3 million. It is expected that, as part of our waste management plan, we will have civic amenity sites in all towns in west Cork.

In terms of the county in general, the landfill site which is proposed to be located at Bottle Hill will cost in the region of €50 to €60 million. The materials recovery facility, originally due to be located at Kinsale Road in Cork city as a joint venture between Cork County Council and Cork City Council, will now be located at Carrigtwohill and will cost in the region of €40 million. The crux of the issue, therefore, is finance, which has much to do with the entire scheme.

I object to the part of the Bill which proposes to make the reserve function, which deals with setting the price for waste collection, an executive function. That is not a good move because the role of a member of the council is fairly restricted and powerless in many respects. The executive function involves deciding on applications for planning permission and council houses. They make 90% of the decisions, which leaves councillors with few opportunities to exercise authority and make difficult decisions. We enjoy doing that and one of those decisions is setting the price for waste collection.