Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. This is an important debate and I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion before us today. That motion calls for the annulment of a statutory instrument, to be specific. There has been a lot of wandering off during this debate onto other issues on the Order Paper, previous debates and debates that we may have in the coming days. As I said a number of days ago, I am absolutely in favour of waste and water charges. We need to be clear about this. I was first elected to the council in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown in 1999 and because of political posturing on all sides of the fence, by all parties and none, we have never seriously tackled the issue and been advocates for the polluter pays principle. That principle is critically important. There have been many arguments for and against it but the reality is that we must pay for both waste and water. Today's debate is about waste.

Again, I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion before us.I have been far too long in local government to know that every time a representative of Sinn Féin speaks, everyone else stands up and opposes him. That is simply not democracy. We keep talking about a new type of politics but there is no new politics. There is simply a new reality: people have to do business and be civil with everyone. That is the reality. We can dress it up as new politics and I hope there is an opportunity to be part of new politics but I am not convinced about the buzzword or phrase "new politics". It is simply the new reality.

I wish to put three points to the Minister. It is important to have a fair national pay-by-weight collection system. That is simple. It must be in line with the "polluter pays" principle. It must be based on fairness and the ability and capacity of people to pay. It must have regard for people who cannot pay and who may need a generous waiver scheme.

Today, I have tried to think how to encapsulate in one sentence what I believe people want, or what the people who have contacted my office say they want, and I am going to attempt to say it in one sentence. The Government's objective should be to secure a reasonable, free and fair allowance per person for waste and a fair unit price for any excess. I have not heard too many people talk about that. There should be a reasonable free element and then payment for any excess above that.