Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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495. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if the practice by some waste management companies whereby customers are charged a service fee for weeks when they do not leave out their bins for collection will be investigated; the legal status of such a charge (details supplied); and his views on whether such charges are in direct contradiction to environmental protection policies in view the fact that households that engage in recycling activities are being penalised with extra charges for doing so. [9608/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The waste management market in Ireland is serviced by private companies, where prices charged, including any service charges, are a contract matter between those companies and their customers.

My role as Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment is to ensure that the waste management market is operating in compliance with relevant environmental legislation. With regard to the charges applied for kerbside household waste collection, the charges applied should encourage householders to divert waste from the residual or general waste bin. For example, it would be expected that charges for the general waste bin would be higher than the charges (if any) applied to the recycle bin or the organic (brown) bin.

The Price Monitoring Group (PMG) was established to monitor the rates charged by waste collectors during the phase out of flat-rate fees. It has found that there a number of different pricing models available in the market including various combinations of service charge, charge per bin lift, charge per kilogramme of weight and weight allowance. The PMG has met each month since September 2017 and has indicated that, in the vast majority of cases to date, charges have remained stable. Detailed data on price offerings is available on www.dccae.gov.ieand on www.mywaste.ie.