Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

A recent report produced for Dublin City Council by the Institute of Public Administration found it would be contrary to competition law to exclude private companies from the waste collection market in favour of returning the function to local authorities. Altering the structure of the market for tendering by local authorities would take several years and require consideration of legal issues including competition and procurement law, potential legal challenges including on constitutional grounds, a full regulatory impact analysis, comprehensive public consultation and significant capital investment by local authorities.

The focus of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and his Department for the waste sector is to encourage greater waste minimisation, improve waste segregation and increase recycling rates. A number of measures are in place and the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act provides for a number of measures from the waste action plan for a circular economy, including incentivised waste collection charging in the commercial sector; a recovery levy on municipal waste recovery operations at municipal landfills, waste energy plants, co-incineration plants and the export of waste; the expansion of household bio-waste collection services; and the introduction of a deposit return scheme for single-use PET plastics and aluminium and steel which will go live in quarter 1 next year. These measures will encourage greater waste minimisation and improved source segregation of waste by customers across the State, and will contribute to achieving our challenging EU targets for municipal waste.

I was not aware of the details of the Tánaiste’s comments last week. In the case of any public service used by the wider population on a regular basis, it makes sense for us to review how it works to make sure it is having not just societal impacts but also the environmental impacts we all want.

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