Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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241. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if the use of bin tags in houses that are unable to have wheelie bins will be affected by the new waste management legislation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19203/16]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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253. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if, in the context of his discussions with waste collection companies, he will allow areas that currently include bag collection to continue to do so until there is a resolution to the issue of high standing charges as that charge is generally incorporated into the price of the bag and many elderly persons put bags out infrequently; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19529/16]

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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264. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government to provide an exemption for existing waste collection customers who pay by a tag system for their refuse collection but who are now being treated as first time customers and being subjected to a service charge and a pay-by-weight system despite the fact that the pay-by-weight charges have been frozen for 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19657/16]

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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278. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will ensure that users of the tag on the bag system of waste management who are not weekly users will not be required to pay a service charge along with the tag lift charge under new regulations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19781/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 241, 253, 264 and 278 together.

It is widely recognised that there are difficulties associated with the collection of household waste in bags, including:

- littering caused by ripped bags;

- health and safety issues for collectors, where sharp objects are placed in bags;

- litter caused by fly-tipping on streets/areas, where bag collections take place;

- little or no segregation of recyclable or food waste; and

- inability to gather data on waste collected for statistical and environmental reporting purposes.

As a result of such problematic issues, I am aware of at least one local authority which has already (through bye-laws) removed the option for householders to present household waste in bags for collection.

With the above in mind, and the planned introduction of pay-by- weight charging which cannot be easily applied to bags, a decision was taken in April 2015 to phase-out the use of bags for household waste collection, where ‘wheelie bins’ could be accommodated.

My Department, in consultation with local authorities, has set criteria to be applied nationally with a view to phasing out bags, with the exception of areas where it is not practical to use ‘wheelie bins’. Local authorities have been requested to designate areas as not being suitable for wheelie bin collections (i.e. designate areas which should remain on bag collections) and are working through this process.

In brief, the criteria for undertaking the exercise to designate ‘bag collection areas’ are as follows:

- No space within the boundary of the property (front, rear or side) to store 3 bins.

- Physical features which make it difficult to move a bin to the front edge of the property or nearest boundary for presentation, e.g. steep gradient and or steps (the advice of a Roads Engineer should be sought) or that would present an unreasonable difficulty.

- The area (e.g. street) is too narrow for a refuse collection vehicle to access properties and the nearest Designated Collection Point or suitable presentation point is greater than 100m from the property (again, the advice of a Roads Engineer should be sought on this issue).

- Where the Local Authority is notified of exceptional circumstances by a householder / resident and the Local Authority certifies same.

Many local authorities have now completed the process of designating areas where bag collections may continue, if applicable, and should be contacted for further information.

It is important to note that while pay by weight is not being introduced on a mandatory basis, it is open to collectors to charge on a pay-by-weight basis, as many already do. Approximately 20% of households are already on a pay-by- weight charge of some form and are happy with that service.

The issue of households who have moved from bags to bins in the context of the current agreements will be discussed with industry this week. Notwithstanding the difficulties associated with trying to accommodate customers who use bags and in respect of whom the collector has no data on last year’s weights or usage, I am confident that a reasonable and fair solution will be found to address this issue.