Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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526. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his plans to implement the programme for Government commitment (details supplied) to place a public service obligation on private waste collectors, including a fee waiver scheme for low-income households; and if he does not plan to honour this commitment, the reason for same, and when this decision was taken. [17293/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Among the measures included in the Government’s national waste policy, A Resource Opportunity - Waste Management Policy in Ireland, which was published in July 2012, was the establishment of an inter-Departmental working group to report to Government with options on minimising 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 would be highly complex.