Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 543: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his plans to deal with the ever increasing problem of waste management; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36968/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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A comprehensive policy framework for addressing our waste management responsibilities has been put in place through my Department's policy statements Changing Our Ways — 1998, Delivering Change — 2002, and Taking Stock and Moving Forward — 2004. This policy framework is given effect through local authority statutory waste management plans, largely prepared on a regional basis, and the comprehensive legislative framework which now governs waste management in Ireland. The approach is based on the internationally recognised waste management hierarchy which seeks to maximise prevention, reuse and recycling of waste, with thermal treatment with energy recovery being preferred over the environmentally least favoured option of landfill.