Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Question 125: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that a private contracting company (details supplied) has introduced an administrative charge of €60 for every household since the autumn of 2011 but has recently exempted from such a charge those who will return to their contract; if he believes such action is uncompetitive and unjust; his views on whether this warrants the introduction of regulation, standards of service provision and an appeals system for those service users who are not receiving the service they are contracted to get; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5819/12]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The charges applied by waste management companies are a matter between those companies and their customers, subject to compliance with all applicable environmental and other relevant legislation, particularly the conditions attached to each waste collector's collection permit issued by the relevant local authority under the Waste Management (Collection Permit) Regulations 2007, as amended. Waste collection in individual local authority areas may also be subject to local bye-laws. Matters of compliance with competition law are proper to the Competition Authority.

The Programme for Government contains a commitment to introduce competitive tendering for household waste collection, under which service providers would bid to provide waste collection services in a given area, for a given period of time and to a guaranteed level of service.

A public consultation designed to inform the policy development process concluded in September 2011. A large number of responses were received from a broad spectrum of interests. As one might expect, a consensus is not apparent and, on almost all of the relevant issues, a considerable breadth of opinion was expressed. All of the responses received, in addition to a summary document, are available on my Department's website, www.environ.ie.

I expect to be in a position to submit final proposals in relation to household waste collection to Government by Easter this year. All policy proposals will be carefully considered by Government and will take account of the full range of issues and perspectives. Issues including value for money and service standards will be among the issues for consideration in this context.