Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 12 June 2013
24. Deputy Michael Colreavy asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if there is legislation preventing local authorities from negotiating contracts, similar to those in the Six Counties, whereby waste collection companies would pay local authorities for the recyclable waste collected. [28066/13]
Amharc ar fhreagraA Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) published by my Department in July 2012 considered the introduction of franchise bidding by local authorities for household waste collection. This approach has been adopted in other EU Member States, whereby a local authority or group of authorities invite tenders from private operators to bid for the exclusive right to collect waste or certain streams of waste within their functional area. The RIA identified a number of risks associated with such an approach and ultimately made the recommendations to preserve the current market structure of side by side competition and to strengthen the regulation of household waste collection.
The RIA and an extensive consultation process informed Government policy on this issue and I published A Resource Opportunity - Waste Management Policy in Ireland in July 2012. The publication of the policy confirmed the retention of side by side competition in the waste collection market and also brought much needed policy certainty to the waste sector, particularly in terms of facilitating planning and investment decisions. The policy further sets out a range of proposals to significantly revise the existing regulatory regime to ensure, inter alia, that waste collected is managed in accordance with the waste hierarchy, that mandated service levels are delivered and that Customer Charters are put in place by all waste collection providers.
The work of developing new regulatory structures to give effect to these proposals is underway and my Department is engaging with a range of key stakeholders in relation to the detailed design of the new system. It is my intention that the revised regulatory regime will deliver both enhanced environmental performance and a quality service for consumers. With regard to the transfer of household waste collection services by a local authority to a private sector waste collector, these are matters for the relevant local authority and the waste collector concerned. Questions in relation to specific contractual issues, such as remuneration for recyclable waste collected, should be addressed to the particular local authority in question.
