The Investigation

Having carried out an initial examination of the complaints made against Waterford County Council, I decided to use my power under Section 4(3)(b) of the Ombudsman Act 1980 to investigate the position in other local authority areas across the country, although I had not received any specific complaint other than those referred to in the previous Chapter.

Objectives of the investigation

The objectives of the investigation are to:

• Establish the terms and qualifying criteria of the waiver schemes being administered across the country by local authorities in respect of refuse collection charges;
• Consider the adverse effects on low-income households of the failure of local authorities to grant waste charge waivers.

Methodology

The investigation process was carried out as follows:

• Twenty three local authorities (see list below) were surveyed by way of a questionnaire. (A copy of the questionnaire is at Appendix 1.) Those selected represent a cross-section of urban and rural local authorities across the country and included: Carlow, Cork City, Cork County, Donegal, Dublin City, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, Galway City, Galway County,  Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny County, Limerick City, Limerick County, Louth, Mayo, South Dublin, Waterford City, Waterford County, Dungarvan Town Council, Westmeath, Wexford County and Wexford Borough.
• As interested stakeholders, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the Society of St Vincent de Paul and the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament were asked for their comments and these are included in the Appendices to this Report.
• In addition, I had regard to other research in this area including two reports published by the Combat Poverty Agency viz. Waste Collection Charges and Low-Income Households –2003 and Implementing a Waiver Scheme Guidelines for Local Authorities - 2005.