Waste collection to be privatised
Sherlock: price cut for less well off could be lost
Thursday July 29 2010
CORK County Council has been slammed after it emerged that the local authority is set to privatise its loss making refuse collection service.
The controversial issue was raised at this week's full meeting of the local authority and while county manager Martin Riordan refused to comment on the issue he did admit that the service was experiencing "difficulties".
A source within the council later indicated that the authority was not in a position to continue funding the service, which is expected to make a €35 million loss in the next year. It is expected that the council will shortly seek "expressions of interest" from private companies seeking to operate the loss-making service.
The revelation has been slammed by Cork East labour TD Sean Sherlock who said he believed the privatisation of the service could "create a cosy cartel among a small number of operators".
The Mallow based deputy, himself a former member of Cork County Council, further accused both the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael parties of "being complicit" with the county manager in allowing the service to be ditched.
"If this is allowed to happen then it will result in a small number of operators controlling both price and service. This will leave people with little or no choice when it comes to disposing of their waste," said a furious Deputy Sherlock.
He said that he was particularly concerned about the future of a waiver system currently being operated by the council for those in receipt of fixed social welfare payments.
"I am aware of companies that are currently going door to door promising retention of the waiver system until March 2011. However there is no guarantee that the system will be kept on outside of the council service," said Deputy Sherlock.
He further questioned the efficiency of the service saying that talk of the huge losses incurred by the service in recent years "just doesn't add up".
"Customers have endured a number of hikes to the standing charge, while the cost of bringing waste to landfill has actually fallen," he said.
"For both economic and environmental reasons I am totally opposed to any move to privatise this service. However I do believe that the members of both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are complicit in their support of the county manager on this issue," he added.
- BILL BROWNE bbrowne@corkman.ie
