I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Wallace, for his attendance at this debate and I hope he will convey my comments to the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, who probably holds the purse strings in this matter.
This is an urgent issue for Limerick city. The local authorities in the mid-west, Limerick city and county, Clare and Kerry, have supported the waste management plan, including "the polluter pays" principle. It is probably the only region where every local authority has voted in favour of the plan. We are anxious to implement it but we are faced with costs which are insurmountable unless we are given committed Government support.
It is all very well for the Minister to say that waste management is a matter for local authorities but what can a local authority do if it cannot afford to implement its policies and, in this case, Government policy? We want to achieve the greening of Limerick. Limerick was the first local authority to introduce a pilot composting scheme and it hopes to extend it next year. There is extensive use of composting cones, which the corporation sells for home composting, and bring banks have been extended significantly in accord ance with Government policy. We have also begun a kerbside collection in one area. The corporation also takes newspapers for shredding and other recyclables for which there is a loss in financial terms.
There was a proposal from a Fianna Fáil councillor at the last meeting of the environmental policy committee that grass cut by the corporation on public open spaces should be collected for composting but the reply from the relevant official was that there was no money to do that. We have agreed to seek specific funding from the Department for it. As there was not enough money to run the collection service last year, the corporation ceased collecting bins in July and the public is now charged by private collectors. People are not only charged for ordinary bins but also for green composting bins, again because of cost. People who are complying with Government policy by separating their rubbish should not be penalised for doing so. However, the corporation says the cost of running the scheme means it cannot subvent it sufficiently to be able to provide it free to householders. That is wrong.
Why is so little of the £650 million in the national plan for waste infrastructure designated for recycling? I believe it is as little as £50 million. We cannot implement the policies in the policy document, "Changing our Ways", because we cannot afford to. Limerick's debt increased last year from £3.6 million to £5.5 million despite the private collection of rubbish. The Minister will say that extra funds were allocated to local authorities in July but Limerick city only got the princely sum of £138,000 while neighbouring county councils got approximately £1 million each. In the recently announced local government fund, Limerick got an increase of 12.5% while they got nearly twice that. The overall increases to local authorities this year has been put at almost 29% but Limerick got just a little over 12.5%. Why is that? This local government fund comes from motor taxation revenue which was ring fenced for local authorities by Deputy Howlin when he was the Minister. That money must be spent on local authorities.
Will the Minister examine on its merits the financial case for Limerick Corporation. Since its tip closed the cost to dump a ton of rubbish, which the corporation pays to the county council, has increased to £40. It was only £9 when the corporation had its own facility. Clare County Council is experiencing a similar problem and will have to bring its rubbish outside the county.
The rate increase is capped at 9% so Limerick does not have the option of raising extra funds in that area. There also appears to be no intention to extend the boundary despite the fact that there is under consideration a request for a boundary extension. Limerick's boundaries are extremely tight. Many of the suburbs and industrial and commercial parts of Limerick are now in the county so the city derives no benefit from them. The city has constantly growing needs and is financially and spatially strangled.
I urge the Minister to look at the efforts being made in Limerick to implement environmental policies and the impossibility of doing that while the city is so under funded. It is not a case that there is no money in the Exchequer or that there are no examples in European countries which are much further ahead of Ireland in terms of recycling. Limerick needs the funding to put the structures in place to implement Government policy. I hope the Minister will respond positively.
