Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Labour Party for introducing this motion. I support what Senator Boyhan said. I believe in competition. It works better than the municipalised system used to work. Nobody has talked about the economics of what is proposed in the motion. Nobody has said it will be cheaper for householders if the system is municipalised. Nobody has put forward any quantification of the economic implications for householders of getting rid of competition and municipalising the system.

I note that the motion calls for a waiver scheme for low-income householders and people with medical conditions.However, implicit in that surely is the suggestion that charges are going to continue. The question that arises is about what are those charges going to be. The promoters of this motion are saying that there are major profits being made, which are being taken out of waste management and could be reinvested in waste management. That suggests that it is proposed that the investment in waste management in future should be financed out of waste collection charges. Again, the question that arises in that context is about who is going to charge them, who is going to fix the charges and how that is going to be done.

The second thing I want to say is that I do not accept the proposition that illegal dumping is caused by competition or charging for waste collection because if waste collection is not to be free, the incentive to engage in illegal dumping is going to exist. If we are not going to charge separately for bin and waste collections from houses, the question that arises is about whether this is going to be added to local taxation in some way and levied per household regardless of how much waste is produced or how often a bin is lifted. These are the kinds of questions that need to be addressed.

I have some sympathy for people who find themselves faced with the proposition of what to do with a broken lawnmower or garden bench or an old bicycle or something like that. What is to happen with it? Are people to drive to a municipal centre and pay money to get their rusty old bike recycled or do they just leave it at home? It does seem to me that there was a time in Dublin when area collections for major items of that kind were carried out by Dublin City Council. It should be a service that is made available. I do not care whether the council does it or private operators do it, but there is undoubtedly a case for one-off services of this kind to be available in a district on a specific day - perhaps one day per month - when people can bring out things and have them put into trucks to be taken away. Given that we are all into emissions now, this would be better than having drive their car up to Bohernabreena or wherever else they are supposed to go to pay to put the bicycle on a pile. They do not know what is going to happen with it up there. Is it going to be recycled for scrap metal? Nobody knows. That is the kind of thing that happens.

The second thing I want to say is about street cleaning. The suggestion has been made that €100 million is spent on clearing up illegal waste. How much of that figure relates to street cleaning and how much of it relates to actual clearing up of illegally dumped waste in significant amounts in the city? I agree that this particular phenomenon is caused by people who want to avoid paying bin charges. In that context, if we are going to continue to charge for a municipalised service, how does the incentive to avoid those charges disappear? How is Dublin City Council or Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council going to prevent illegal dumping from happening simply because they are also responsible for the collection of waste? It does not all add up.

I fully appreciate that people are concerned. I do not really think the fact there are different companies collecting on my road in Ranelagh at different times is a huge environmental problem. It is a bit of a nuisance sometimes. On the other hand, I do not know that if one lorry had to do the whole road on one particular day, there would not be a massive traffic jam on the road as every single house would have to be done by the same team operating the same truck. There is no perfect solution to all of this. I will finish on that point.

I do not agree with remunicipalisation. I do not think it is a good idea. I think it is an ideological idea. I am glad to hear from Senator Warfield that he claims credit for this great ideological push on Dublin City Council to do it. I am glad he has not succeeded yet and I hope he and his colleagues do not succeed in bringing it about.