LEVIES FOR waste going to landfill are to rise to €50 a tonne, with provision for further increases over the next two years as part of legislation introduced by Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan.
The legislation also includes a provision to allow the plastic bag tax rise to an absolute maximum of 70 cent, but Mr Hogan stressed he had no immediate plans to raise the levy from its current 22 cent rate.
The measures are part of the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which also increases fines for the use of bituminous or smoky fuel in areas where smokeless fuel regulations are in place.
Opposition TDs have warned, however, that the levies will result in increased wheelie bin charges and claimed the Minister missed an opportunity to compel manufacturers to reduce packaging. The legislation introduced in the Dáil yesterday replaces the Bill brought in but not passed by former minister John Gormley.
That Bill would have increased landfill and incineration levies to €120 per tonne. While the new Bill will increase the levy from €30 to €50 in September, with a further €15 rise next year and €10 more in 2013, it allows for an absolute limit on the landfill levy of €120 a tonne.
On the controversial issue of an incineration levy, Mr Hogan said he would announce his decision at committee stage of the Bill. He is awaiting advice from the Attorney General on the Hennessy report, commissioned by Mr Gormley, which deals with the deal by Dublin City Council and Covanta to build an incinerator at Ringsend.
The Minister said “the stark message that jumps out is that Ireland is overly dependent on landfill. Despite the very significant progress that has been made over the last decade, we are still sending more than 60 per cent of our municipal waste to landfill.” He said in 2009 Ireland sent over one million tonnes to landfill, but the maximum in 2013 will be 610,000 tonnes under EU rules.
Fianna Fáil spokesman on public sector reform Seán Fleming said if his party had raised the landfill levy it would be called a “stealth tax”, warning it would “put up the cost of wheelie bins”. He criticised a proposed €500 fine if bags of solid fuel or sticks for sale were not sealed and labelled. “The idea that regulators will be sent around to prosecute such outlets for selling a few bags of sticks is ludicrous.” He said “issues such as this bring the law into disrepute”.
He questioned the idea of local authorities being allowed to compete for waste collection “if they are involved in issuing planning permission for waste facilities”.
Brian Stanley, Sinn Féin environment spokesman, said provisions of the Bill “heavily penalise the ordinary working person, while not addressing the amount of waste which is produced by manufacturers and wholesalers”. The Bill was a “lost opportunity” for the Minister to set “progressive time-framed targets”.
Catherine Murphy (Ind, Kildare North) said the waste collection service was already liberalised. “There needs to be additional regulation,” she said, focusing on difficulties in Kildare where “six or seven contractors arrive one after the other to collect waste at 5am or 6am, thereby preventing people from getting a night’s sleep”.
She said: “We found this problem absolutely impossible to address even through the introduction of bylaws. This is much more of an issue in urban areas where there is more acute competition, and it demonstrates there is an element of cherry-picking in waste collection.”
