Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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294. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if rises in domestic refuse collection charges and in particular the rise in recycling charges imposed by a company described in the communication from a person (details supplied) is lawful; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10668/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The charges applied by waste management companies are matters for those companies and their customers, subject to compliance with all applicable environmental and other relevant legislation, including contract and consumer legislation. Any concerns relating to contract and consumer legislation should be directed to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.

Notwithstanding the above and the fact that I have no role in setting the level of fees charged in the market, it is my understanding that the company concerned has voluntarily maintained a discounted price for certain customers; and though the level of that discount has now been reduced, such customers will still benefit from a lower price compared to the regular fees charged.

My Department is currently undertaking a review of pricing structures for household waste collection. Incentivised pricing for domestic waste aims to encourage people to prevent, reduce and segregate their waste, in order to reduce our impact on the environment and our reliance on landfill waste disposal. Encouraging people to reduce and recycle waste will be an important initiative in terms of helping to address the landfill capacity emergencies which occurred in 2016 as well as meeting our targets and obligations under current and future EU legislation. The review will consider more than one form of incentivised structures. It is also my intention that a comprehensive awareness and education campaign would be rolled out in advance of the introduction of any new incentivised system.