Labour TD Marie Sherlock has said Dublin’s waste management system needs a “serious overhaul.”
The Dublin Central TD has been a long-term advocate of Dublin’s waste management system falling back under municipal control.
Sherlock has criticised Dublin City Council for their recent decision to ban big bags, saying that the decision “struck a nerve.”
A June meeting organised by Sherlock saw over 300 local residents turn out and voice their frustrations on the issue.
“The council effectively made a policy decision but left it to the private bin companies to decide how to implement those changes,” she told the Dáil, and argued the situation was a microcosm of modern Ireland.
A government or government-adjacent body announces a charge to a system it used to provide, and lets a private operator handle the fallout.
Sherlock said there has been an “outpouring” of “anger and frustration” among Dublin 7 residents.
“Our communities have begun to see just how dysfunctional our waste system is,” she remarked.
“In recent weeks, I have seen a huge call for reform and an appetite for reform,” she told the Dáil, prior to it’s summer recess, and expressed frustration that in it’s final piece of business before the break, the government parties opted to shoot down Labour’s bill.
Labour’s bill called for a change to the Waste Management Act 1996, with the aim of empowering local authorities.
Under Labour proposals, local authorities would have the power to appoint a single operator for their local authority area, and do away with the competition element which has seeped into Ireland’s waste management system.
Under current legislation, section 2 and 3 of the existing act excludes local authorities from making waste collection arrangements in their area.
Sherlock noted that on the numerous occasions she has raised this discrepancy in the Dáil, the government line boils down to the decision resting with the chief executive of each local authority.
She added that in her constituency of Dublin Central, specifically, there is a high degree of landlord exploitation and current rules around waste management lets landlords off the hook.
“As a TD for Dublin Central, I am acutely aware of how very real comfort and deprivation live cheek by jowl. There is appalling exploitation of people right across my constituency who are in desperate need of appropriate accommodation and who are crammed into three- and four-bedroom houses where there could be 16 people.”
She said “it is an inhumane squeezing of people into tenement-like conditions, and it is landlords who are facilitating it. To be fair, the least of the worries of many of those tenants is where they put their black bags, but we need to make sure that landlords are forced to have a waste management contract for every house or apartment they let.”
Sherlock said that Labour felt compelled to introduce the legislation because it is Labour’s view that the current system of private waste collection is “not working.”
“The theory of competition was supposed to deliver choice and affordable pricing, but the evidence is very much to the contrary,” she said.
“We know that residents have faced extraordinary price increases in collection services in recent years. Panda’s bin collection prices have risen by 43% since 2024. The City Bin Company increased its charges by 26% in the past two years. Greyhound’s last increase was 48%, back in 2024, and we expect to see another announcement from it soon.”
The Labour TD stated, “many of the private bin companies are effectively creaming profits from bin collection, with local authorities having to spend millions of euro.”
“Dublin City Council has to spend millions of euro collecting 3,500 tonnes of illegally dumped waste on our streets every year. The reality is that we have serious underinvestment in recycling. The government has effectively admitted that recycling rates have plateaued at about 41%, when we have serious targets to try to meet by 2030.
During the debate, Sherlock cited a 2018 report from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission that found Ireland’s waste management system is “inefficient” and that opening it up to private market forces has only made the quality of services worse for consumers.
She noted that “the other key point in all of this is that, for many years, trade unions have spoken about the need to overhaul the system because of the wages, conditions and exploitation that have existed. I pay tribute to the More Power to You campaign. Fórsa, SIPTU and Connect are the three main unions behind it.”
“At the end of the day, waste collection is a public service and the jobs should be decently paid. We spent a lot of time during the pandemic applauding those who had to go out to work, like those collecting our bins, when the rest of us got to stay at home, yet we know the terms and conditions in many of the companies are very poor,” she said.
Fine Gael TD and junior minister Alan Dillon explained why the government could not support the Labour bill.
He explained, “the Bill seeks to legislate for a fundamental restructuring of Ireland’s household waste collection market at the very time that government is undertaking a comprehensive, evidence-based review of the future structure of that market.”
Dillion insisted “this is not about resisting reform, nor is it about defending the status quo. It is about ensuring that reform is informed by evidence.”
“The government has commissioned an independent study to examine the feasibility of moving Ireland’s household waste collection system from the current side-by-side competition model to a franchise-based system. That study is examining the environmental, economic, operational and consumer implications of alternative market structures. It is considering issues such as service quality, competition, investment, affordability, environmental performance, implementation challenges and the wider impacts on the waste sector.”
Dillion dismissed Labour’s charges that introducing market elements into waste management has led to poorer services.
“The Bill assumes that replacing competition in the market with competition for the market will resolve many of the challenges facing household waste collection. However, that should not be taken as a given.”
He claimed “in many instances, the greatest environmental and economic gains arise from strengthening the regulatory and economic measures that already underpin the existing market. Better outcomes may be achieved by improving the operation of the current system rather than replacing it entirely. That distinction is important.”
The Fine Gael TD stated “the objective of government policy is not to favour one market model over another. Our objective is to maximise environmental outcomes, improve resource efficiency, provide high-quality services and support Ireland’s transition to a circular economy.”
“We should be careful not to assume that changing market structure automatically delivers better environmental outcomes. The Bill contains no evidence demonstrating that moving to an exclusive franchise model would significantly increase recycling rates, reduce waste generation or materially improve Ireland’s ability to meet its obligations under European waste and circular economy legislation,” he stated.
“Changing contractual arrangements alone will not necessarily address those challenges. That is why the government believes that policy development in this area must remain evidence-based and proportionate.”
Speaking following the Dáil discussion, Sherlock indicated the government had already made up its mind prior to hearing the Labour side of the argument.
“It appears to have pre-empted the outcome of its own independent review by effectively ruling out any move towards a single operator franchise system before that process has concluded,” she noted.
Having been fighting for the need for waste reform since her time in the Seanad, Sherlock was adamant that some version of the legislation would pass in the future.
“I hope this debate is the beginning, not the end, of this discussion.”
“The government should now engage seriously with the practical measures set out in Labour’s Bill and allow its own independent review to reach its conclusions without prejudging the outcome. Communities deserve a more efficient, accountable and reliable waste collection system,” she said.