Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 62: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he intends to conduct research into the reason 21% of the population do not avail of a waste collection service; if he will examine this problem to ascertain the way in which many of these people cannot access a waste collection service due to genuine difficulties with the cost of the scheme; and his views on setting up a national waiver scheme to help with this difficulty. [9587/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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In accordance with section 33 of the Waste Management Acts 1996-2005, local authorities are obliged to collect, or provide for the collection of, household waste. Section 33(3) provides exemptions whereby a local authority need not provide a collection in cases where an adequate waste collection service is available; the cost of providing a waste collection service by the local authority would be unreasonably high; or the local authority is satisfied that adequate alternative arrangements can reasonably be made by the householder.

Following publication of the Environmental Protection Agency's, EPA, National Waste Report 2004 which calculates that 23% of households are not availing of, or not provided with, a waste collection service, my Department wrote to all local authorities on 10 January 2006 to request that they take active steps to establish if any of the exemptions of section 33(3) apply in the case of these households. In addition, local authorities were asked to outline the actions taken, or intended to be taken, to establish where this uncollected waste is being directed. This is considered to be an appropriate mechanism to address further the implications of the EPA finding.

Based on replies received to date it is clear that a variety of factors influence whether householders avail of a waste collection service. While illegal burning of waste or fly-tipping is certainly occurring other factors are also reported to be contributing to a distortion of the picture. These factors include deposition of household waste at recycling centres and landfills by householders themselves; the sharing of bins by some households; the recording of waste collected from some apartment complexes as one household; difficulty in quantifying the number of pay-by-tag customers; the numbers of vacant dwellings and holiday homes that do not require a regular waste collection service. It is also the case that collection services are absent from certain routes due to their remote location or where the road is too narrow and is not suitable for large trucks.

I am considering what might be appropriate regulatory arrangements for the rapidly evolving waste management sector, including any public service obligation which might reasonably be imposed in respect of low income households or in areas where service provision is not economically viable.