Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 September 2014
500. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if a task force investigation into a waste industry has been set up on foot of comments made prior to the summer break in view of the Greyhound waste dispute; the progress and plans in this respect; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35493/14]
View answerSection 60(3) of the Waste Management Act 1996 precludes me from the exercise of any power or control in relation to the performance by a local authority, in particular circumstances, of a statutory function vested in under the Act. Similarly, I have no function in relation to industrial relations issues such as workers’ rights and conditions or industrial dispute resolution in the waste or any other sector.
Waste collection is the statutory responsibility of local authorities, in this case, Dublin City Council. Under section 33 of the Waste Management Act 1996 (as amended) there is a general duty on a local authority to either itself collect the household waste in its functional area or alternatively to arrange for its collection by third parties. Given the strategic importance of waste management to the welfare of the environment and society in general, my Department wrote to Dublin City Council requesting a written report on the contingency/scenario planning that has been undertaken by the City Council to provide/arrange for the provision of an alternative household waste collection service in the event of an inability of Greyhound Recycling and Recovery to maintain collection services to their customers in the City Council area.
The City Council has confirmed that it is satisfied that there is a sufficient number of other permitted operators in a position to provide a household waste collection service to households in the City Council area at a competitive price. The Council also believes that the costs of the City Council directly providing an alternative service would be unreasonably high.
My role as Minister is to provide a comprehensive legislative and waste policy framework through which the relevant environmental regulatory bodies, such as local authorities and the EPA, operate. In that context, I intend to introduce legislation early next year , to come into effect in July 2015, to significantly reform the regulation of household waste collection, including introducing measures to require collectors to operate the pay by weight system across all 3 bins as a permit condition and meet certain minimum standards of customer service (for example, specified frequencies of collection). It will also become a statutory requirement for all collectors to have customer charters in place. I will be setting out in law what the minimum content of these customer charters will be so that standards of service are improved and are consistent.
