John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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455. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he has established the pricing watchdog monitoring unit to oversee new pricing structures being introduced by waste management companies; if so, the members of this unit; the numbers of times the unit has met; the findings of this unit to date; the progress being made in establishing a regulator for the waste management industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40660/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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A Household Waste Collection Rate Monitoring Group has been established and the first meeting of the Group was held on 13 September, 2017 and comprised representatives from my Department, the Central Statistics Office, St. Vincent de Paul and a market expertise company.  The company has also been appointed to begin the process of monitoring the rates charged by household waste collectors.  They will report back to the Group on a monthly basis and the results will be published.  The results will be monitored and analysed, and they will provide an evidence base regarding future monitoring or additional regulation of the waste market.

In the interest of encouraging further waste prevention, flat-rate fees for kerbside household waste collection will be phased out over the period autumn 2017 to autumn 2018, as customers contracts come up for renewal. It is worth noting that the measure to phase out flat fees is not ‘new’ for about half of kerbside household waste customers, who are already on an incentivised usage pricing plan, i.e., a plan which contains a per lift or weight related fee.

To assist householders in managing their waste, the Regional Waste Management Planning Offices commenced a programme of education and awareness funded by my  Department earlier this year with radio advertisements encouraging the use of brown bin and focusing on food waste prevention. This was backed up with social media campaigns to further encourage the use of the brown bin. The Regional Waste Management Planning Offices will continue to roll out waste awareness and education initiatives this year, re-focussing on the use of the brown bin, but also concentrating on improving and increasing recycling, waste prevention and the correct use of the kerbside collection system. My Department is also undertaking an awareness campaign to inform people about the phase out of flat rate fees, which began during the summer and will continue this year.