Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have tried to deal with as many of these issues as possible. The incinerator is coming on stream. Even with that, there will be a shortfall by 2020. In response to Senator Leyden, last year, on two separate occasions we came very close to stopping bin collections because we had nowhere for waste to go. That is the reality of the decision, and I had to introduce emergency legislation, with the consent of local authorities, to find space for refuse that had been collected. Sadly, this is a problem that I will have to deal with until we reduce the residual waste. We cannot brush this under the carpet. We do not have that luxury. If someone can provide me with another solution to reduce the amount of material going into landfill, I will be quite open to that but it has to be for now and not for five years’ time when we will have to open a new landfill or reopen existing landfills, and none of us wants to have to do that.