Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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616. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will introduce a bin fee waiver in view of Covid-19 in particular for households on low incomes (details supplied). [12997/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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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. In an effort to ensure that all waste collections, both household and commercial, continue during the Covid-19 pandemic my Department established a Covid-19 High Level Waste Advisory Group consisting of key stakeholders from industry, the local authority sector and regulatory bodies. This Group, in cooperation with all elements of the waste industry, has helped to ensure that there have been no interruptions to waste collection services to date and ensuring that most civic amenity sites have remained open to the public for those without a household collection service.

Since mid-2017, a range of charging options have operated, which encourage householders to reduce and separate their waste. This provides flexibility to waste collectors to develop various service-price offerings that suit different household circumstances. Mandatory per kilogramme 'pay by weight' charging was not introduced. A Price Monitoring Group (PMG) was established in mid-2017 to monitor the on-going cost of residential waste collection to homeowners across Ireland as the ‘flat-rate structure’ was being phased out. While fluctuations in prices and service offerings have been observed, the overall trend has been relative price stability. Results from the PMG are available on my Department's website.