Thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this issue. I also thank the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dea, for attending the House at this late hour. I hope he will urgently convey this matter to the Minister for the Environment and Local Government and the fact that it requires his immediate attention before someone is killed or seriously injured.
I am sure the Minister is already aware of the proliferation in the number of end of life cars since the introduction of the NCT. More or less simultaneously in the Dublin area, the facility at Hammond Lane which was used by the local authorities for the recycling of cars suffered a fire which resulted in further health and safety requirements. The outcome is that local authorities, as well as having to pay for the collection costs of cars also have to pay for their decontamination prior to recycling. This involves draining the cars of petrol and the removal of batteries.
At a time when the number of calls for this service is growing at a phenomenal rate, the local authorities cannot absorb the additional costs involved. The end result is that in the Dublin and greater Dublin area all the local authorities, bar one, which is now considering it, have introduced charges to the public for the disposal of cars. This is bad enough but there is a further anomaly whereby the responsible citizen who arranges for his car's disposal has to pay a charge of £40 or £50 and is at a relative disadvantage to the many persons who arrange to have their cars burnt out. It is wrong that the system encourages these people in this free service.
I contacted several of the local authorities in Dublin who reported that the number of burnt out and abandoned cars has trebled in the first three months of this year. Clearly the system of charging for car disposal is not an incentive to responsible behaviour. I ask the Minister to refund to local authorities the cost of car disposal so at least there is no disincentive to proper disposal and no excuse given to those who are selfish, thoughtless and far from civic minded.
Abandoned cars are now a litter problem but they are much more than that. I am raising this matter not primarily as a litter problem but because it is a major public safety issue in many parts of urban Dublin and other cities around the country, particularly in disadvantaged areas where nightly citizens are subjected to terrifying scenes of joyriding and acrobatics before the cars are finally thrashed and burnt out. In most cases, drivers are little more than children in charge of lethal weapons. If this is allowed to go on, nothing is surer than that there will be fatalities.
I have heard reports of owners handing cars to children because they have failed the NCT. Others are more suspect in dealing with their disposal problems. They park their open cars with the keys in the ignition, usually outside somebody else's house. Either way, a person who behaves like this can be confident that their disposal problems are over and at no cost to them. This is mindless and incredibly selfish behaviour for which no penalty can be too great. It certainly requires more than a litter fine.
I ask the Minister to refund to the local authorities the costs involved in disposal, at least to obviate the need for a charge which only gives these people an excuse to dump their cars. The Minister will be aware a new end-of-life tax on cars will be introduced shortly under an EU directive so the cost to the Exchequer will only be temporary. This is an urgent issue and I ask the Minister to respond positively to my request.
