Hogan refuses to intervene in bin collection row

MINISTER FOR the Environment Phil Hogan has said “the buck stops with Dublin City Council” in the row over the transfer of bin collection services to a private company.

He refused to intervene in the dispute over Greyhound’s warning to 18,000 customers that from tomorrow it would not collect their waste if they had not signed up for the service and paid the charge.

The Minister insisted he would not “micromanage” the business of local government. “The buck stops with Dublin City Council, which made a democratic decision to exit from the public collection of household waste and give it over to the private sector.”

He was responding in the Dáil to Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald, who said the situation was clearly in crisis and it was such a mess, “it falls to the Minister to address the issue”.

The transfer of the service had been “utterly shambolic”, and citizens had had no contact from either the council or Greyhound about the transfer of the service.

She said that for many low- and middle-income families the additional burden of a €100 pre-payment charge was “a bridge too far”.

When Ms McDonald claimed the Government had promised a comprehensive waiver system but had not introduced it, Mr Hogan said: “There are 34,000 people on waivers at the moment, which is in line with the commitment we made.”

He said they were talking about 18,000 people out of a total of 140,000, and if the 18,000 had issues about payment structures “they should engage directly with Greyhound”. There were a further 52,000 people on standing charges, and the remaining 70,000 were covered by waivers or subject to other payment mechanisms.

Mr Hogan said customers could pay the €100 pre-payment charge in two instalments. There was also more than one provider of waste collection services in some areas and households could choose an alternative service provider.

Ms McDonald said that if the waste of 18,000 customers was not collected it was “a recipe for grave public health and environmental issues”. Dumping of rubbish was already a “phenomenon and a real scourge” in the city.

She said that if the company would not collect the waste it was “utterly bizarre” for the Minister to wash his hands of the problem.

Mr Hogan said it was “the responsibility of all citizens to comply with the law and not dispose of their waste illegally. It is simply not good enough for the majority of compliant customers to carry the can for the minority.”

The Minister said the cost of collecting waste in Dublin was lower than in any other local authority area. “The people of Dublin city are getting good value for the collection of their waste.”

Ms McDonald accused the Minister of being “brazen” in “standing aloof” from the problem and said the collection of rubbish was a “core civic function of any local authority” although a decision had been made to privatise it.

The Minister said the city council “made a democratic decision to exit from the public collection of household waste”.

When Ms McDonald said it was a decision by council management, Mr Hogan said “the councillors voted to accept it” and had an input into the decision. He added that the council was responsible for ensuring household waste collection, in this case through a private operator.

He said the Government would consider the approach to future regulation of the household waste collection market and the perspectives offered by those involved in last year’s public consultation process. “I expect to be in a position to submit to Government final proposals on household waste collection by Easter.”