Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher T.D. has called on the present Minister for Housing and Local Government Simon Coveney T.D. to suspend the introduction of a new charging regime for bin charges until such time as there is transparency surrounding the scheme.
The Donegal TD added there must be certainty that the new charging mechanism will not increase costs on households throughout the country.
He said that in principle the concept of paying by weight is fine, providing that this does not lead to sizeable increases in charges and the price it costs households to dispose of their rubbish.
“The present proposals by the current Government totally lack price security and consistency of pricing throughout all the private operators within the state,” he said.
Deputy Gallagher proposed that the Government introduce a Customer charter ensuring that households will not be forced to pay higher bin charges as a direct result of changing the method of waste collection from a flat rate collection to pay by weight system.
“This must be especially be made to benefit people living in rural areas where collection rates could be increased due to wider collection areas for pick up. It is now requires a Ministerial order to firstly suspend the chargers and secondly to put in place safe guards for the customers to prevent massive increases in the cost of waste disposal,” he said.
Pat the Cope called on the Government to take immediate action on the charges surrounding Pay By Weight in order to protect the customer and the household’s right throughout Donegal.
