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.”