Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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456. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans for exemptions for those with medical conditions that require the use of incontinence pads in view of the difficulties those people are now experiencing following the changes being introduced by refuse companies and the pay by weight policy. [40755/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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An annual support of €75 will be introduced for persons with lifelong or long-term medical incontinence. This will help people meet the average annual cost of the disposal of medical incontinence pads. The details and arrangements of this support will be finalised later this year, after further consultation with the stakeholder groups.

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. 

In the interest of encouraging further waste prevention, the Government decided that 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 and the necessary regulatory steps are being put in place to give effect to this decision.

As has been long-standing practice, a collection service provider may amend a pricing structure or a contract at any time, as long as the amendments are in accordance with all relevant legislation, including contract and consumer legislation. It is worth noting that the measure to phase out flat fees is not ‘new’ for the more than half of kerbside household waste customers who are already on an incentivised pricing plan, i.e., a plan which contains a per lift or weight related fee.