Sinn Féin TD Dessie Ellis has said that it is time for the Minister to act against errant practises in bin companies since the price freeze last month.
The Dublin North West TD said:
“The insistence by Greyhound waste collection company on customers having to front load their credit by the 1st of August is another way to force people into the pay-by-weight scheme. This goes against the spirt of the agreement with the Minister. It’s now time for a legislative response to bring errant companies into line or the majority of financially pressured people will be in a position that they are unable to afford a bin service.
“I said that the announcement last month from the Minister and the Irish Waste Management Association does not go far enough with a price freeze for a year and now we have some companies trying to introduce the previous price structure through the back door. By crediting customers again on August 1stGreyhound are not charging extra but the result of this is that customers will have to pay twice for yearly contract. If you paid in January under this situation you have to find another yearly fee seven months into the year. More importantly it places a burden on those who can’t afford to pay.
“With no option for instalments or no bin waiver, many people including pensioners who have budgeted and paid their waste charges for the year last January now have to find another sum of money to stay on their existing plan. The failure to do this will result in the customer being put on the pay-by-weight, which is considerably more expensive. As the Minister said in his answer to me, this approach is out of step with other collectors and therefore out of step with the spirt of the agreement entered into with the Minister himself.”