Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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34. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment regarding Dublin City Council’s pilot programme to bring bin collection services back under public control, if he will provide the number of local authorities intending to run the same pilot scheme, the parameters of the scheme, and the length of time it is intended to run for, in tabular form. [43495/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Local Authority Executives are statutorily responsible for municipal waste collection and waste management planning within their functional areas. It is open to the Chief Executive of any local authority to exercise their executive function in relation to waste collection 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 executive function vested in it. Notwithstanding this, I can say that I am unaware of any proposals in any local authority area for piloting the re-municipalisation of waste collection services.

The Deputy may wish note that I will shortly commission a comprehensive study to explore the feasibility, potential benefits and risks associated with transitioning our waste collection system from its current model of side-by-side market competition to a franchise tendering system for local authority areas or regions. This study will assess the economic, social, environmental, and regulatory implications of such a transition and, as appropriate, offer recommendations for implementation.