Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The DRS is a good idea and there is a way in which it has to be managed and rolled out. As the Deputy has heard me say, and as customers will also hear me say, that if the success of the DRS results in the waste collection industry raising the price for households, the Government does not accept that such prices are inevitable, as the Deputy has said, nor merited. I just want to be very clear on this. What individual stakeholders may believe is not what the Government position is, which I am clearly elucidating here and will do so again, for the benefit of the House and everybody else. The Government does not believe it would be fair if this success results in the waste collection industry raising the prices of household waste collection and we absolutely do not accept that such price raises are inevitable or indeed merited at this time. There is no reason, particularly in circumstances of a rising population, our current system of kerbside collection cannot work successfully alongside the DRS. This is a process of adaptation for everybody, but it will work. Waste collection charges are affected by many things, including staff and fuel costs, gate fees and commodities prices. While the Government has no role in relation to price setting, as the Minister of State said, there is a greater need for transparency. I suggest this greater need for transparency exists, irrespective of the introduction, or not, of the DRS. Transparency and fairness are important and the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, is considering regulatory options for greater transparency, if all waste collectors are not prepared to do this voluntarily by publishing comprehensive details of their pricing structures on their websites for the information of householders. The Minister of State expects voluntary co-operation with making sure that this is a completely transparent process, that people know the exact costs and the input costs into the different models, that there are clearly incentivised structures for waste segregation and that those are clearly communicated to customers. I am saying on the Minister of State's behalf that there is no reason costs need to go up and that there is a good reason for increased transparency.

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