Eamon Scanlon (Fianna Fail)

County Sligo signed up to the Connacht waste management plan a number of years ago in the belief the plan would be implemented. The only landfill site we had in the county at that time has now been closed. Since then we have been held to ransom between counties Donegal and Mayo and wherever else we have to take our waste. We have four licensed refuse collectors in the county who are paying €168 a tonne to dispose of it. A 25 tonne load would therefore cost over €4,000.

Costs have risen substantially over the past few years. The last annual charge was €458 per annum. We did not go for the annual charge but decided to go for a bag system, €10 and €5 bags. As a result of introducing the bag system we cannot keep supplying bottle banks for people who wish to recycle their waste. We have no waiver system in the county either. Any county that has such a system is lucky.

Some people are composting their waste. I was talking to a man with a family of six who manages to get three weeks' waste into one €10 bag because he breaks down the waste. That is the way forward. Waste management plans must be put in place for everybody's benefit because the costs are—