Gabrielle McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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511. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of private waste collectors contracted to local authorities operating waiver schemes; for low income households, and pensioners; if he will provide details of those local authorities; the way customers, who were eligible for waivers when local authorities operated waste collection services, can now afford to pay private waste collectors; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7117/15]

Gabrielle McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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512. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if local authorities have the power to ensure private waste collectors contracted to local authorities have waivers in place for low income households and pensioners; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7118/15]

Gabrielle McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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513. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if a waiver scheme was recognised by the State with no loss accruing to the local authority, such as with the free travel pass, free electricity and so on; if waivers will be offered to relevant customers of a private collector. [7119/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 511 to 513, inclusive, together.

During the period in which local authorities were directly involved in the collection of household waste, a minority of individual councils offered different levels of discount to selected households, based on different qualification criteria.

As local authorities exited the waste collection market, some required the private operators which took on the Councils’ customers to provide a level of discount for existing waiver customers only, and even then for a limited time. The vast majority of contractual commitments for private operators to provide a waiver have now expired. In that context, the number of households in receipt of waiver discounts is likely to decline over time, especially as some householders were able to take advantage of special reduced offers elsewhere which actually undercut the waiver price. However, selected private operators still offer some level of discount to former waiver customers on a voluntary basis. However, this information is commercially sensitive to each operator and is not available to my Department.

In addition, a very limited number of local authorities make financial contributions towards the cost of, or pay for, the collection of waste from certain households. Again, the qualification criteria and level of support differ from area to area. Such expenditure means that these local authorities divert funding from other areas to support these waiver provisions.

Among the measures included in the Government’s waste policy, A Resource Opportunity - Waste Management Policy in Ireland, which was published in July 2012, was the establishment of an interdepartmental working group to report to Government with options to minimise the impact of waste charges on low- income households.

The working group, which comprises representatives of my Department and the Departments of Social Protection; Public Expenditure and Reform; Finance; and the Tánaiste's Office, submitted its second report to Government in July 2013. Government considered the report and, given the complexity of the issues involved, including the fact that the vast majority of households have moved away from local authority collection and have engaged private waste collectors on whom it would be difficult to impose any obligation to provide a waiver system, mandated the working group to continue to examine the issue, with a view to submitting a third report to Government in due course.

Given that the vast majority of local authorities no longer collect waste and that the market is now serviced by a diverse range of private operators, where the fees charged and services offered vary across the country, it is becoming increasingly apparent that introducing a national waiver scheme in the context of an open market for waste collection is highly complex.