Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 107: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if, in view of the recent rapid increases in inflation, he intends to introduce a national waiver scheme for municipal waste collection for persons on lower incomes. [16461/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Waste collection is properly a local service with individual arrangements being locally determined and tailored to local circumstances. Consequently, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has at no time exercised a function in determining waste management charges, or any associated waiver arrangements. The present legal framework, as determined by the Oireachtas, reflects this local nature of waste management services. Under Section 52 of the Protection of the Environment Act 2003 the determination of waste management charges is a matter for the relevant local authority, where it acts as the service provider. Similarly, where a private operator provides the collection service, it is a matter for that operator to determine charges. I do not consider it appropriate to propose a departure from these existing statutory provisions by introducing a national waiver scheme.

However, in order to assist households with lower incomes, I have asked local authorities to engage with commercial waste collectors with a view to agreeing on a scheduling of payments (i.e. a pay-as-you-go system) rather than a periodic lump sum payment. The question of whether there may be public service obligations relating to the waste sector and, if so, how these could be met, has been included in my consideration of possible measures to regulate the sector, which is addressed in Question No. 11 on today's Order Paper.