THE DUBLIN CITY Manager has admitted that mistakes were made with the privatisation of the waste collection service in the city.
At an emergency meeting of Dublin City Council last night councillors raised serious concerns over the changeover to private waste company Greyhound. The Council had handled waste services for the city for over one hundred years.
“We have been rightly criticised [for the changeover],” City Manager John Tierney told the meeting.
Fianna Fáil councillor Mary Fitzpatrick said that the issue of how the privatisation took place will be referred to the Competition Authority as well as the Data Protection Commissioner.
“We have very serious concerns about how this process has been managed and if public money has been appropriately spent during the privatisation process,” she said.
The Manager said it may take ‘weeks’ to resolve issues with the changeover.
Councillors agreed a motion requiring that homeowners in the city be provided with at least the same level of waste collection service that they had previously from the Council and that the Council service be restored while this is ensured.
Councillors also passed a motion calling on Greyhound to offer customers the option to pay for the service quarterly, which they were able to do with the Council service, and to introduce a national waiver scheme for people on low incomes.
One resident of inner-city Dublin told TheJournal.ie that confusion over collection dates had led to large piles of rubbish being left outside along the side of roads.
“In whole areas, bins and bags were not collected at all last week resulting in mountains like this thrown out from apartment blocks,” said Teemu Kankkunen. “It’s an awfully badly-handled situation”.
Dublin City Council has attached bright red labels to the rubbish warning that residents could be fined up to €3000 for leaving it out on the wrong collection day.
(Photo of uncollected rubbish on Bella Street in Dublin 1 by Teemu Kankkunen)
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