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Infrastructure, Public Utilities and Spatial Developmentdelivery of services to end users.The Council broadly supports this policy approach. However, itbelieves that government bears ultimate responsibility for ensuringthat Ireland has sufficient broadband services to be at the leadingedge of both economic and social development in the 21st century.In the first instance, this responsibility consists of monitoringwhether the action of a range of public and private players areleading Ireland in that direction. These actions include thegovernment’s own its involvement in programmes of focusedinvestment to leverage private sector investment in the deploymentof advanced broadband technologies and services in the regions. Ifexisting steps are not sufficient, the behaviour of the various actorsmay have to be tweaked to ensure more coherent outcomes. In thefinal instance, government will be considered, by both citizens andenterprises, to bear ultimate responsibility for ensuring that ourtelecommunications facilitate economic and social development.9.7 WASTE MANAGEMENTThe Council has chosen to include a number of indicators reflectingits commitment to environmental sustainability in its recent reporton National Progress Indicators (NESC, 2002a). These include thelevel of household and commercial waste expressed on a tonnageper capita basis and the disposal and recovery of household andcommercial waste as expressed through the comparativecomposition of disposal methods.The European Community has adopted a waste hierarchy, stemmingfrom reduction in waste at its pinnacle, to disposal through landfillat the base and encompassing reuse, recycle and heat recovery, orincineration as the intervening strata.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that almost600kg of waste is generated by each person in the State every yearand landfill remains the primary form of disposal, accounting for87.8 per cent of the household and commercial waste stream in2000 (EPA, 2002). With only 12 per cent recycled, this remains aconsiderable distance from the Government’s stated target of a481