James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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1503. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the status of the proposed pay by weight bin charges; the stage at which his Department is at in formulating a new system; when he expects to announce a revised system for waste collection; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1369/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The mandatory pay-by-weight per kilogramme charging structure for household waste collection was due to be introduced in mid-2016. As the waste industry began releasing its proposed pay-by-weight prices in June 2016, the Government relayed to the industry its concern about the reported escalation of waste bills for customers of certain companies. As a result, on 30 June 2016, regulations were signed to remove the requirement to introduce a mandatory per kilogramme charging structure.

My Department is currently reviewing, together with the regulatory authorities and industry representatives, the introduction of an incentivised pricing system, such as pay by weight, for household waste collection. The review is due to be completed by July 2017.  Incentivised pricing aims to encourage householders to prevent, reduce and segregate their waste, to reduce our reliance on landfill waste disposal in light of the landfill capacity emergencies that occurred in 2016, and also facilitates the industry in providing householders with a range of options to manage their waste costs.