Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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158. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the estimated cost of bringing waste collection services back into public ownership. [41191/21]

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Local authorities are responsible for municipal waste collection within their functional areas. The obligations on local authorities in relation to collecting household waste are set out in section 33 of the Waste Management Act 1996, as amended. In summary, it provides that each local authority shall collect, or arrange for the collection of, household waste within its functional area. The obligation to collect or arrange for the collection of household waste shall not apply if: - an adequate waste collection service is available in the local authority's functional area,

- the estimated costs of the collection of the waste would, in the opinion of the local authority, be unreasonably high, or

- the local authority is satisfied that adequate arrangements for the disposal of the waste concerned can reasonably be made by the holder of the waste.

It is open to any local authority to re-enter the waste collection market as direct service providers ​if they so choose, either alongside existing permitted service providers or subject to making arrangements to replace those providers. 

Under section 60(3) of the Waste Management Act 1996 I am, as Minister, precluded from exercising any power or control in relation to the performance by a local authority, in particular circumstances, of a statutory function vested in it.