Trade unions and Councillors from Dublin City Council called for the remunicipalisation of waste services at a cross party briefing held in Leinster House on Wednesday 10^th May.

The event was hosted by the More Power to You campaign, a trade union coalition campaigning for enhanced local government services in Ireland.

At the meeting the coalition outlined how the remunicipalisation of waste services that involves the transfer of responsibilities from private waste management companies back to local authorities is a key priority for the trade union movement. 

The briefing outlined the current challenges of outsourcing in general, with a specific focus on the experience of Dublin City Council’s remunicipalisation subcommittee. The committee was established after a 2019 motion called for the Dublin City Council to re-enter the waste market following a 2012 vote to privatise the service.

The call follows several similar re-municipalisation projects taking place across Europe including in the UK, Spain, and Germany.

Speaking at the of the briefing, Fórsa National Secretary Richy Carrothers commented that the delivery of waste management services was like the “wild west”.

He said: “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.

"Almost 1 in 4 households in the state currently have no domestic waste collection service while the Government has adopted an exclusively market approach to domestic waste collection, with side-by-side competition within a single local authority area.

"In all other European cities, there is a tender for a single provider, within each local authority area, who must meet strict criteria in relation to the quality of customer service, labour contracts and environmental controls.

"The current structure of the domestic waste sector is bad for the citizen, bad for the workers in the sector and bad for the environment and we need change. It’s time to end the profiteering feeding frenzy on the delivery of waste services," he said.

Cllr Daithi Doolan, who chaired the DCC group on remunicipalisation said: “This is a significant step in our campaign. Our coalition of political parties and trade unions are bringing the demand to the Dáil and Seanad. Members of the Oireachtas will be left in no doubt what needs to be done to bring the bin collection back into public ownership, where it belongs.”

Kevin Donoghue, Campaign Coordinator of the More Power to You campaign welcomed the level of advanced interest and enthusiasm from representatives in Leinster House.  He said: “We have a clear path to remunicipalisation of waste services and that path relies heavily on leadership from our TDs and Senators. I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years.”

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