Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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564. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his plans to review the regulation of the private waste collection industry in the State following the recent industrial action involving a company (details supplied); and his plans to prevent a race to the bottom in wages and conditions for workers in this sector. [38211/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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My role as Minister is to provide a comprehensive legislative and waste policy framework through which the relevant environmental regulatory bodies, such as local authorities and the EPA, operate. In that context, I intend to introduce legislation early next year , to come into effect in July 2015, to significantly reform the regulation of household waste collection, including introducing measures to require collectors to operate the pay -by- weight system across all 3 bins as a condition of the in permit and to meet certain minimum standards of customer service (for example, specified frequencies of collection). It will also become a statutory requirement for all collectors to have customer charters in place. I will be setting out in law what the minimum content of these customer charters will be so that standards of service are raised and are consistent.

My remit as Minister does not extend to industrial relations issues such as workers’ conditions and wages in the waste or any other sector.