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Waste collection firm's plan to hike bin prices blasted by TD

One of Ireland’s biggest waste collection service providers will hike prices in north county Dublin this weekend.

AN ESTIMATED 300,000 households and businesses will soon see their bin prices raised.

Panda, one of Ireland’s biggest waste collection service providers, will hike prices in north county Dublin this weekend before similar taking place in other counties.

The decision has been blasted by politicians who have labelled it as “price gouging” and a “completely unjustified” move by the company.

However, the company has indicated it’s not passing on the full force of cost increases it faces to its customers.

Social Democrats Wicklow TD Jennifer Whitmore said the planned increase in cost of €13.50 to have your general waste bin collected by Panda will be “way above” the rate of inflation.

“This is the type of price gouging we can expect when services that were once provided by the State are farmed out to private enterprise,” Whitmore said.

The TD, who is the party’s spokesperson on climate and biodiversity, said the model results in householders being “left at the mercy of the market” as multiple waste collection companies compete against each other.

Panda was contacted for comment and had not responded at the time of publication.

The company has defended the increases by pointing to a “knock-on effect” of the rise in national minimum wage, and a rise in general charges for bin firms.

A Panda spokesperson told the Irish Independent that general recycling charges have increased by 50pc for waste companies over the past year, but it insisted that it was “only ­passing on a portion of this cost” to green bin users.

Sinn Féin’s leader on Dublin City Council Daithí Doolan said that Panda’s claims that the increase is down to an increase in the minimum wage was a “smokescreen” and should not be accepted.

“This is a further attempt to gauge the public’s pockets in the drive to increase profits at all costs,” Doolan said.

“From Saturday the half-yearly service charge goes up to €70, general waste per lift price goes up to €13.50, a jump of nearly 15%, while the recycling per lift cost jumps by 25% to €1.25 from February 1st.”

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