Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If someone does not like the price package they are being offered by one service provider, they can go to another one. The thinking behind having an open, competitive market is that we would encourage companies to compete with each other and offer different solutions, collection rotas and pricing models. We were trying to layer on top of that a requirement that everybody would have to factor in a pay-by-weight model as part of that pricing model. We will phase that in over time rather than mandate it.

I dealt with the issue of new customers and the freeze, which is a tricky issue. Companies in this industry get a very bad name. They frequently get beaten up, so to speak, in this House and in the other House. Some of the companies have acted honourably in terms of what I have asked of them. We must not forget that we legislated for the introduction of pay-by-weight. They have invested heavily in that to be able to make it happen. Some of them were not ready, but many of them were ready. Given the understandable kickback due to the lack of preparation in terms of communication to ready households for this change, we have essentially put it off for a year. We now have a plan to try to improve that communication significantly during that period.

It is important to state that many in the industry have responded to what I have asked them to do. They will reduce their margins in terms of what they otherwise would have been making as a result of that and if there are some who have not behaved in the same spirit, we need to try to deal with that. This is a very competitive, aggressive industry in terms of how it operates, and we should not fool ourselves in this regard.

In terms of customers only being offered pay-by-weight, and the Senator seems to be suggesting there is no other option for customers, I want to be clear. There is no mandated requirement now for any company to have to introduce pay-by-weight and nothing else-----