Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----which I believe backs up what Senator Mac Lochlainn has been saying.

I want to address some of the issues raised. A number of people have bandied around the idea that we believe people should pay. I do not know of anybody who is not paying for their waste collection other than somebody who is brilliant at recycling. I know one or two people who do all the composting. They separate their waste, etc., and, once or twice a month or every couple of months, go to a landfill site and bring in a very small bag of waste but from what I can see, everybody else is paying. The issue is not about people paying. It is about people being fleeced, which is what would have happened if the system was introduced on 1 July. We all agree on that point.

We cannot fool anybody. In Connemara, for example, the standing charge we were paying would have been much higher than the charge people are paying currently on an annual basis. People were going to be asked to pay double the cost.

In fairness to Fianna Fáil, nothing it is suggesting is affected by the proposal we are putting forward. Everything it is proposing could be done even if we rescind the statutory instrument. We have seen Ministers come in and out of here with statutory instruments. We must call on the Government to rescind the statutory instrument. If the Minister wants to come back here next week with the elements of the statutory instrument that we do not have an issue with we will agree to that, but the problem is to do with the issues that have been raised

We have concerns about transparency and the moneys involved. It is a bit rich for the former Minister, Deputy Reilly, to come in here and talk about the transparency of profits of companies when as Minister for Health he did very little to tackle many of the drugs companies which are making massive profits and costing the State a great deal of money.