Seanad debates
Thursday, 13 February 2003
Protection of the Environment Bill 2003: Second Stage (Resumed).
I support many of the measures in the Bill. I am delighted to see a provision for revoking or suspending licences where there are serious breaches of the fit and proper person requirements. I support the increase in fines for breaches of licence provisions and the explicit power given to local authorities to discontinue the collection of domestic waste in the event of non-payment of charges. That is vitally important. One cannot have a situation where one individual in a street, for whatever excuse, does not pay charges yet their refuse is collected in the same way as that of everyone else. If one pays one's charges one gets the service one pays for. A private company would soon stop collecting waste if it had not been paid and local authorities must be able to do this also. It is a huge change in some areas to have to pay refuse charges, though not in Galway.
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