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Tánaiste pledges review of waste collection as Dáil hears clashes over Panda's brown bin charge

Smith said that waste privatisation was to blame for the fact that some households would be paying close to an additional €100 a year on bin charges.

PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT TD Bríd Smith was accused by Tánaiste Micheál Martin of seeking to “destroy Ireland’s economic model” as they clashed over the privatisation of bin collection in the Dáil today.

Smith raised the issue at Leader’s Questions after waste collection company Panda announced that it would introduce a €3.80 charge for brown bin collection. 

“Panda hiking up their bin charges will be no surprise to customers who’ve had to pay hefty charges in this country since 2003, roughly when the move to bring in bin charges was proposed,” the Dublin South-Central TD said.

“This is the craziness of companies which are making vast profits, most of which are now going to to fund infrastructure in Australia. This is the biggest waste management company in the country.”

She added that a household having its organic bin collected every second week would be paying close to an additional €100 a year.

“Panda’s profits are now owned by an Australian infrastructure company that will help Australia build infrastructure.”

“It does nothing for us here except put more hefty bin charges on people and disincentivise them to recycle,” she said.

Martin challenged her criticism of Panda for being Australian-owned, saying there are “many Irish companies providing services all over the world”.

He continued: “Talk to Enterprise Ireland and the number of client companies that have exports all over the world, to Australia, to Canada. That’s what create jobs in Ireland.”

Smith argued that Martin was misrepresenting her point, to which he replied “you raised the argument that because it’s an international company, it’s problematic”.

The argument grew more heated, with Martin continuing:

“We have a small open economy in this country. If we’re going to take a protectionist view that no foreign company can provide any service in this country that would destroy the Irish economic model.”

Smith had also blamed “dirty large diesel trucks” entering housing estates every day of the week on the increase in bin companies since waste collection was privatised and said that customers now had no incentive to recycle if they were going to be charged for separating their rubbish out.

Martin responded:

“Irrespective of whether it’s private, public or whatever, the story around waste in Ireland has been one of continuous progress over the last two decades.”

“Collection companies are required to charge fees which incentivise households to minimise waste, to segregate their recyclable and organic waste from residual waste.

“There is no requirement for a collector to charge fees on the organic waste. Of course, it’s up to companies to decide how to structure their pricing. And we’ll keep the situation under review.”

Smith responded that the treatment of rubbish is less environmental than 2003, noting that the Poolbeg incinerator had been built since and that Ireland was still exporting toxic waste.

“Now, if the privatisation of waste hasn’t led to that, what has?” she said.

Panda’s price increase has also been criticised by trade union SIPTU, with divisional organiser Karan O Loughlin saying today:

“The Government has adopted an exclusively market approach to domestic waste collection, with side-by-side competition within a single local authority area. In all other European cities, there is a tender for a single provider, within each local authority area, who must meet strict criteria in relation to the quality of customer service, labour contracts and environmental controls.”

“The current structure of the domestic waste sector is bad for the citizen, bad for the workers in the sector and bad for the environment.”

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29 Comments
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    Mute Ciaran Goggins
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    Apr 20th 2023, 2:00 PM

    Back to burning it so

    408
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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Apr 20th 2023, 2:02 PM

    @Ciaran Goggins: Yep. Only way now.

    261
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    Mute mark mc cann
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    Apr 20th 2023, 2:50 PM

    Nothing will change, They won’t revoke the charges and in a week or twos time there won’t be a word about this anywhere

    209
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    Mute Kerry Evans
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    Apr 20th 2023, 3:05 PM

    More greed is good creed FF style
    Price gouging is all the rage at the moment…
    They keep telling us it’s inflation …
    Like all the corporate business in Ireland it’s open season profit Baby
    Rip off Ireland alive and well enabled by FFG…

    227
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    Mute Dub Ambman
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    Apr 20th 2023, 3:10 PM

    The problem here is privatisation coupled with heavy licensing and regulation

    If you privatise it, you have to make it accessible to competitors to drive cost down. The heavy licensing and regulation here prevents any real competitors entering the market and allows the few in the industry to operate as a cartel

    146
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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Apr 20th 2023, 4:02 PM

    @Dub Ambman: The alternative is unregulated waste disposal & hope for better? She’s right – where’s any incentive to compost rubbish if they charge for it just because they can? Scandinavian cities are trying out much better schemes where people can bring rubbish to local bins that are emptied weekly & it solves a lot of trouble.

    74
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    Mute Adrian
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    Apr 20th 2023, 2:06 PM

    Didn’t realise Dublin had a bin service. Anytime I’m unlucky enough to have to travel up I’m falling over rubbish.

    207
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    Mute Brian Molloy
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    Apr 20th 2023, 2:58 PM

    @Adrian: true,Dublin is one big dump

    138
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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Apr 20th 2023, 5:09 PM

    @Adrian: yup, rubbish and dog Sh!t€

    49
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    Mute Brendan Floss-Jones
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    Apr 20th 2023, 5:45 PM

    In Germany for example you get a refund for compostable waste. Only in Ireland can companies get away with the like.

    97
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    Mute Paul Whitehead
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    Apr 20th 2023, 3:05 PM

    A good alternative for my fireplace. I’ll be burning as much as I can.

    112
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    Mute Padraic Costello
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    Apr 20th 2023, 3:13 PM

    Amazing how MM loves to twist the opposition comments in order to put the bad guy in good light, much like his party politics. Horrible human!

    186
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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Apr 20th 2023, 3:54 PM

    @Padraic Costello: He is no leader and that’s a fact. A weasel of a man in fairness.

    148
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    Mute Johnny Kelly
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    Apr 20th 2023, 2:01 PM

    What’s the big issue with fingal. We’ve been paying brown bin charges to greyhound in DCC for years

    80
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    Mute Thomas Claffey
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    Apr 20th 2023, 2:15 PM

    @Johnny Kelly: Yeah like a lot of us

    60
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    Mute Gerry Canning
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    Apr 21st 2023, 10:18 AM

    @Johnny Kelly: The issue is that there is no competition. Fingal CC awarded Panda the council Tender years ago, knowing fine well it would give them a monopoly in the area and drive out all other companies, which it did. Now Panda exploit the fact constantly. The introduction of the brown bin charge is on top of an increase in the standing charge (the fourth one in two years). The same company (Beauparc) also own Greenstar and are eying up others. They doubled their profits from Irish Waste to 51 million in 2022, so the increased costs angle doesn’t hold true.

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    Mute Gerry Canning
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    Apr 21st 2023, 10:26 AM

    @Gerry Canning: Here’s a link to Pandas response, arguing against the re-introduction of competition into the sector. Ironically, one of their points they go out of their way to highlight, in a negative light, that a company is owned by a venture capital fund, shortly after, they sold out…to a venture capital fund.

    https://www.ccpc.ie/business/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/09/37.-SEHL-Panda-Greenstar.pdf

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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Apr 20th 2023, 2:01 PM

    Michael talking rubbish ..as usual

    201
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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Apr 20th 2023, 5:10 PM

    Leo out boasting about our tax collecting prowess and here’s another service they should be paying for.

    72
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    Mute MrBkavanagh
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    Apr 20th 2023, 4:52 PM

    #NoToRiseInBinCharges

    52
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    Mute Yvon Queguiner
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    Apr 20th 2023, 7:21 PM

    This shouldn’t be private when we have that amount of taxes.

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    Mute John O Mahony
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    Apr 20th 2023, 7:28 PM

    Something needs to be done urgently.waste companies are robbing people blind.

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    Mute Treasa Kerrigan
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    Apr 20th 2023, 7:56 PM

    Fly tipping has increased dramatically since bin charges were introduced and it costs the councils a fortune to clean it up. I wonder if they worked out how much they saved by privatisation and how much they spend on cleaning up the fly tipping, which would be more?

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    Mute Michael Hannon
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    Apr 20th 2023, 6:21 PM

    And f… all will be done about it as usual. Just wait now and all the rest of those waste companies will follow suit!

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    Mute Hurrly 90
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    Apr 20th 2023, 8:57 PM

    Why cant it become a Government compay (cant think of the phrase right now).
    Have similar charges or maybe even slightly cheaper with any ‘profits’ going into the construction of more green projescts like windfarms or forestry etc?
    Why are the profits being sent to Australia ?

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    Mute Philip Duffy
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    Apr 21st 2023, 7:35 AM

    Who were the groups behind the campaign to take bin collections from the Councils and give it to private Companies?

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    Mute Nicholas Grubb
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    Apr 20th 2023, 5:43 PM

    The most stupid, populist thing ever done in this country. Charging for the rubbish and giving the water for free, apart from the 250,000 who pay for their own supply. You just couldn’t make it up.
    Collect the rubbish as a public service and charge for the water. The rubbish to be burned in local combined heat and power plant, not packaged up for dumping in the ocean in the Third World.

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    Mute john maher
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    Apr 20th 2023, 6:48 PM

    It’s all a load of rubbish

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    Mute Juri Hertel
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    Apr 20th 2023, 10:37 PM

    Why is the green waste not composted in the garden?

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