A €75 refuse waiver for people with long-term, and lifelong, medical incontinence, alongside changes to waste collection charges, announced by the Government last year, has still to be introduced.
Sinn Féin Galway City East councillor, Mairéad Farrell, has called the situation "deeply regrettable", as the failure to introduce the waiver has left those with medical conditions "without any financial support" to meet the increases in their waste collection charges.
The waiver was announced in June 2017, with arrangements due to be finalised at the end of that year. However, the Minister for Communications, Richard Bruton, admitted that complications around data protection had delayed the introduction of the waiver payment.
Cllr Farrell though has questioned this: "Surely these complications could not have been ongoing since June last year when this payment was announced? The Government should have made the announcement before ensuring such a waiver was possible to introduce in the first place." She said the result of this has been, "some of our most vulnerable citizens and families are left to suffer."
