The EU Waste Framework Directive of 1975 and the EU Landfill Directive of 1992 provide the basis for Ireland’s current system of waste management. These Directives have been transposed into Irish law by means of primary legislation including the Waste Management Act 1996 (WMA) and the Protection of the Environment Act 2003.
Under the Waste Management Act 1996 (as amended), local authorities have a wide range of functions in relation to waste collection. Section 33 of the Act provides that “each local authority shall collect, or arrange for the collection of waste within its functional area”. Each local authority can decide who provides the waste collection service in its own area and, currently, waste collection is carried out in a number of different ways:
- collection by the local authority,
- collection is contracted out by the local authority to private operator(s) who collect(s) the waste on its behalf,
- collection by a private waste operator (fully privatised).
All private operators who wish to collect waste must first obtain a waste collection permit. The Waste Management Act divided the country into waste management regions and one local authority in each region has responsibility for awarding permits to private operators within its region.
Section 52 of the Protection of the Environment Act 2003 amended the waste Management Act 1996 to provide for the imposition of waste charges and the waiving of all or part of the charges on the grounds of financial hardship as follows:
“75.- (1) A local authority may make a charge in respect of the provision of any waste
service by, or on behalf of, that authority.
(3) A local authority may, if it is satisfied that it is appropriate so to do on grounds of personal hardship, waive all or portion of a charge made by it under
subsection(1).”
Waste Management legislation, however, is silent in relation to the imposition or waiving of charges by private waste operators.
According to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (the Department), a local authority has the power to make appropriate arrangements with the private sector for the waiving of waste charges where it is not the service provider (See Appendix 9 to this report). However, a High Court judgement delivered in June 2005 notes that a local authority is not entitled to pay a third party for a waiver scheme - all it is entitled to do is to waive a charge it levies for a service provided by or on behalf of the local authority (Mr Binman Ltd v Limerick City Council).
The making of a charge in respect of the provision of a waste service and the provision of a waste waiver scheme is an executive function under the provisions of S75(8) of the Waste Management Act 1996 (as amended).