Fórsa has welcomed a report, published by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action on 15th October, recommending that “the Department supports the establishment of a pilot scheme in Dublin City Local Authority to re-municipalise waste”. The report is available here.

The announcement comes following Dublin City Council’s adoption of a cross-party composite motion calling for the re-municipalisation of household waste services in July 2019. 

Re-municipalisation of waste has been a key demand of both the Municipal Employees’ and Local Government and Local Services Divisions, and has underpinned the More Power to You campaign.

Head of Divisions Richy Carrothers explained that Fórsa has been at the heart of the campaign, and the union was called as an expert witness to the Joint Committee. 

“This is a very positive development and vindicates our claim that the re-municipalisation of waste services is good for citizens, workers and the environment and that it is entirely possible to bring this critical service provision back into local authority control. We will be regrouping with the other campaign stakeholders in order to map out next steps,” he said. 

In 2023, almost 1 in 4 households in the state currently had no domestic waste collection service as the Government adopted an exclusively market approach to domestic waste collection, with side-by-side competition within a single local authority area.

On foot of the Oireachtas publication, the Taoiseach's Taskforce for Dublin subsequently released a report. Among its recommendations was that “moving to re-municipalisation of waste management on a phased basis should be considered” in the long term, and that in the meantime, the council should contract out and oversee the bin collection service for the city. 

“The privatisation agenda has played far too great a role in the provision of public services for too long. Unions, through the More Power to You campaign, are pushing against that agenda, the reality is local authority public services should be delivered by public sector workers. This welcome progress is a fundamental milestone in our campaign,” he said. 

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