| First Dublin authority pulls out of waste service |
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| Thursday, 09 October 2008 | |
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Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council is to discontinue its multi-million euro loss making waste collection service and appoint a private operator to run the operation. After mounting speculation on the viability of the service in recent months, the local authority finally announced last week that it had initiated the public procurement process for the appointment of a private company to provide a black and brown bin service. In a letter to councillors, county manager Owen Keegan outlined proposals that will mean the council will be the first local authority in the Dublin region to outsource its waste operations. He said the council had now raised its estimate for the losses it will sustain this year as a result of the provision of its waste operations from e6.8 million to e10 million. Private waste operators such as Panda and Greenstar have also succeeded in winning almost half of the council’s original base of 64,000 customers and the number of tonnes of household waste the council has collected has fallen from 65,000 in 2004 to 18,000 tonnes in 2008. Mr Keegan said these figures had raised questions about whether the council should continue to participate in the Dublin Region Waste Management Strategy. He indicated that he would seek further advice on the matter. The manager added that while the council still retains just over 50 per cent of the market, only half of their customers had paid their waste collection arrears. A total of 14,400 council customers owe arrears in excess of e150. “The Finance Department has been instructed to accelerate the withdrawal of service to households with substantial arrears who are either not prepared to enter into an agreement with the council in relation to clearing these arrears or having entered into an agreement have failed to honour it,” he said. The local authority has been in negotiations for the last 18 months with a number of trade unions in an attempt to rationalise the service, which would have meant that redundancy packages could have been offered to about half the council’s current complement of 40 bin men. Dismayed However, in the letter to councillors, Mr Keegan said the council has told the unions that they are considering the option of “terminating the direct labour service”. SIPTU branch organiser Ramon O’Reilly said their members in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown’s waste collection were angry and dismayed to hear that their jobs may be outsourced. “This decision has implications for waste collection across all the Dublin county councils and for the waste collection strategy,” Mr O’Reilly said. “All the other Dublin councils have taken a robust and innovative approach to waste collection and are committed to continuing the collection of household waste by direct labour. They believe it is the most efficient and environmentally friendly system that will allow them to conform to targets set by the EU.” Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance, who was also a leading figure in the Anti Bin Tax Campaign, claimed ordinary people would suffer as a result of the move. He believed those on lower incomes would be most affected if private operators decided to raise their waste collection charges. “The private waste companies now stand to make an absolute killing,” he said. “They will now be able to drive up bin charges year on year. Hard-pressed “The ridiculous suggestion that competition between private companies will keep bin charges low has been blown apart by the recent announcement that Greenstar are now in negotiations to buy out Panda.” He added: “The losers here, as always, will be ordinary hard-pressed householders and taxpayers.” However, Cllr Jim O’Leary (FG), who is the chairman of the council’s Strategic Policy Committee on the Environment, said the council was not withdrawing from the service and would instead try to ensure that services charges remained low. “The council, through the public procurement process, will look after the lesser well off and will be ensuring the service will be provided at a lower price and not at a loss to the council,” he said. Mr Boyd Barrett said the People Before Profit Alliance plans to hold a protest outside the council chamber on October 13. |
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