International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

7.4 Key Organisations Involved in Implementation and
Management
The DoEHLG is responsible for the overall policy context set out in the documents
published since 1997. The DoEHLG and the Minister for the Environment were the
bodies, which instituted the change across the board in 2004.
As mentioned above the DoEHLG and the Minister take an overall position of
guidance in the area of the management of household waste. On-going circulars are
issued to Local Authorities, and via Local Authorities to private waste collectors.
Local Authorities are responsible for the issuing of waste collection permits within
their administrative area, under the waste management regulatory framework. In
2001, two statutory instruments were introduced regulating the issuing of collection
permits for waste management operators, these being the Waste Management
(Collection Permit) Regulations, 2001 (SI No. 402 of 2001) and the Waste
Management (Collection Permit) (Amendment) Regulations, 2001 (SI No. 540 of
2001). The 2001 Regulations were revoked and superseded by the Waste
Management (Collection Permit) Regulations, 2007 (SI No. 820 of 2007) and the
Waste Management (Collection Permit) (Amendment) Regulations, 2007 (SI No. 87of
2008).
Domestic waste collection across Ireland is provided by a variety of methods, namely:
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� Exclusively by the local authority;
� Exclusively private waste collection companies; and
� A combination of local authority and private waste collection companies.
Hence, Local Authorities and private waste operators are involved in the collection of
household waste and, therefore, in the charging of collection fees to customers.
It may be noted that the fee structure charged by either Local Authorities or private
operators is currently not regulated (a variety of charging methods exist). This is
described further in the section on implementation costs. Therefore, the Local
Authorities (or indeed any other bodies) are not specifically involved in confirming that
customers are being charged, or that the level of cost recovery from the charge levied
encapsulates the environmental costs.
The experience of Cork County Council in attempting to enforce variable changing in
the county, as identified in the Fehily Timoney report referenced in Section 7.5.1 of
these Annexes, talks of the difficulties encountered in attempting to ensure that all
private waste collectors operating within the County introduced a DVC mechanism.
While the council operated services took the lead in the introduction of pay by weight
systems, the council was limited in term of sanctions that could be imposed or
enforced on operators, allowing many to continue with flat fee services.
7.5 Monitoring and Measurement Techniques Applied
Both the EPA and DoEHLG are involved in a supervisory role in the overall
implementation of waste management in Ireland. Local Authorities and Private
Operators are obliged to provide data on waste collection, recovery and disposal
volumes to the EPA for analysis on the regional and nationwide trends and for
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