The removal from use of the single pay as you go bin bag for refuse disposal was a hot topic of debate at Mayo County Council's monthly meeting on Monday afternoon. Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne raised the issue saying: "It shows total disregard for people who are elderly, living in apartments, people who have no back door, and plenty of people who belong to this local authority who have no back door or place to leave their bin.
"This council took the decision many years ago to get rid of the waste collection service, that is why many of these operators in the private sector are jacking up their prices, that is why the Government had to bring in legislation to control them.
"These are people who go down to the shop, pay their €5 for their bag, put in their rubbish into it and leave it out for their refuse collector, they are not the people who fill the bag and drive out the road and dump it across the ditch, and these are the people who are being screwed again and that's not right."
Martin Keating, head of environment, climate change, and agriculture for the council, outlined the position in relation to the removal of that particular service saying: "The regulations introduced by Government early in 2016 specifically excluded collection by bags, because I believe the Department of Environment felt the facility wouldn't be in place for the weighing of bags and that it was an inappropriate way to present waste, you will be aware of what has happened recently in relation to pay by weight, the Minister has reached an accommodation with the waste collection sector in relation to the freezing of charges for 12 months.
"It's not something that's being driven by the local authorities, there is a provision for exemptions under certain criteria, the county council has engaged with the waste collectors and sought submissions from each of the waste collectors that operate in the county, those have been received, there are a set of criteria under which they have be evaluated and that process is ongoing and I would expect by the end of the week that decisions would be made in relation to any exemptions that might meet the criteria.
"The criteria will relate to urban areas, where people wouldn't have back entrances and very tight urban spaces, also a criteria due to the rural location of isolated households, if the current collection process is not available to householders if they were required to move to a wheelie bin service."
