John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 433: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if consideration is being given to establishing a new independent regulatory authority for the waste management sector which would provide a greater transparency in the sector and which would have a remit to decide on the charging structure for waste services. [34364/12]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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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 system otherwise known as 'franchise-bidding.'

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. 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 finalise the policy development process in relation to household waste collection shortly. All policy proposals will be carefully considered by Government and will take account of the full range of issues and perspectives, including the matter of regulation of the sector.