Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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45. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his plans to introduce legislation to deal with price increases in the event that at the end of the 12-month freeze on bin charge increases, bin companies intend to proceed with significant price hikes. [18485/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I have engaged actively and intensively with representatives of the waste industry and have agreed a clear way forward that results in customers paying no more than their current rate for presenting the same amount of waste over the next 12 months - by means of a price freeze to end-June 2017.

Under the agreement reached with the waste industry, customers will from 1 January 2017be able to see, through a dual billing process, details in their bills about the amount of waste they are disposing of, their costs under the continuation of their current price plan and details of the comparative pay-by-weight charge.

During this transition period, the Government, in partnership with the waste industry, will drive an intensive public awareness, information and promotion campaign to support customers in understanding the new system, how they can change their waste management behaviour and manage better their waste costs under a pay-by-weight system.

The above approach provides increased transparency around what charges households would incur under pay-by-weight and also provides householders with information on the operation and benefits of pay by weight along with the option to switch to pay by weight charging from 1 January, 2017.

After the transitional 12-month period, the operation of pay-by-weight and of the wider waste market will be reviewed to inform decisions in relation to arrangements beyond 1 July 2017, including the need for further legislation as appropriate.