LABOUR TD MARIE Sherlock is introducing a Bill to the Dáil today which would introduce a single domestic waste collection provider in Dublin City.

If enacted, the Bill would see a total overhaul of how household bins are collected in Dublin and would move away from the current system whereby multiple private companies compete for business. 

Under Sherlock’s proposals, this system would be replaced with one where the private companies compete to become the provider for the entire city. 

Speaking on the plinth at Leinster House this morning, the Dublin Central TD said we must move from a system of “competition in the market” for waste collection to one of “competition for the market”.

“There should be a single provider covering waste, taking responsibility for waste across the whole of the city and indeed in other parts of the country. Because the reality is, there is no one person in charge of waste in Dublin, and that is wrong,” Sherlock said. 

• Policy Matters: Can bin collections be brought back under public control? Yes, but it could take a while 

She noted the price increase announcement last week from Panda, an increase of 9% for a black bin, and described it as “a scandalous increase well above inflation”.

“We, the Labour Party believe, for a long period of time now, that we have a seriously dysfunctional system,” Sherlock said, noting that there are “enormous” levels of illegal dumping and litter on the streets and unreliable waste collection services in some parts of the city. 

Sherlock’s Bill would also mandate that landlords must ensure their tenants have a contract with a waste collector. 

She appealed to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs to back her Bill today, saying they are “very vocal on the ground about the waste issue, but yet we see no action in Government over a long period of time”.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin TD and the party’s spokesperson for Dublin, Mark Ward, has also called for an overhaul of the waste management system in Dublin. 

Similar to Sherlock, he has called for one operator to manage waste services in a local authority area. 

“We need to bring bins back under public control and ensure that essential services are operated in the best interests of the people, not private profit,” Ward said, adding that it has been done in other countries. 

“A single operator per local authority would reduce the number of bin trucks on your street and should reduce the amount of illegal dumping.

“This would also lead to a decrease in prices, which can be set out in the tendering process by the local authority,” he said.