Update 3pm: A small but vocal group of protestors calling for bin collection to be returned to county councils, has gathered outside South Dublin County Council where Minister Simon Coveney is meeting councillors.
One protester said: “We want to get greed and corporations out of our state services and take it back into public, democratic ownership again.”
Earlier:
Minister Simon Coveney is expected to reveal his plans to tackle the current impasse in relation to bin charges later today.
New pay-by-weight charges will come into effect on July 1 and a number of companies have said they have been forced to increase the price as a result.
However Niall Killilea, the Managing Director of City Bins says he has not hiked up charges “just” because of the new rules coming into effect.
He said: “The previous minister made a statement that 87% of households would see reduced bills. That was always mathematically impossible.
“What we would expect among our customer base is that roughly speaking about a third would see a decrease in their bill, a third of the bills would stay the same, a third would see an increase.
“That’s what we would expect if there was no change in customer behaviour.”
Mr Killilea said the company supported the new charging system as a way to encourage conservation.
Even greater numbers could save money by changing their waste practices, as the legislation intended, he added.
Mr Killilea estimated that the waste industry has invested close to €10m in putting weighing and billing systems in place ahead of the introduction of the new regime.
The National Standard’s Authority of Ireland will be responsible for the bin weighing mechanisms.
Paul Turner from the organisation explains how it will work.
Mr Turner said: “When the bin truck pulls up outside your house to collect the bin, it is an automatic system so the bin truck will automatically lift your bin, weigh it and put it back down on the ground.
“Then all the data from that weighing will be automatically transmitted to a central location.”
