I want to ask the Taoiseach about the reports in the media that the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten, was to tell the Cabinet that the pay-by-weight bin charges were to be abandoned and that the system is inflexible and will not work. Perhaps the Taoiseach will acknowledge if this is true and indicate when this matter will be brought before the House. We would welcome the measure and would recognise it as a result of pressure from ordinary people who see this as a problem. They are being penalised for the high costs of landfill at the behest of the profits of the big waste companies most of whom, as the Taoiseach is aware, keep their accounts off-shore in the likes of the Isle of Man where a significant proportion of their profits are kept from public scrutiny. The Companies Act will allow some scrutiny of those profits but I reject fully the Green Party argument that says pay-by-weight is a good thing as it would penalise the polluter. I believe that the Minister, Deputy Naughten, is now recognising that many of these polluters are people with large families, who by their nature will have more waste, and people with special needs and health needs. If one looks at the statistics, Ireland has a very high rate of recycling. When will the Taoiseach announce to the House the abandonment of pay-by-weight?

I will not announce the abandonment of pay-by-weight measures before the House. That is not what the Minister, Deputy Naughten, has been talking about. He was talking about a further extension of the current situation where charges were frozen. The Minister has been very clear about it. He said that whether a person is a small user or a very large user, everybody should have the incentive to reduce the amount of waste being sent out for collection. That is what he is looking at. There will be a regime in respect of incentivising everybody - small or large users - to reduce the extent of waste being put out for collection. This is what the Minister was talking about. It is not the-----

So it will not be brought in during January?

It is not the abandonment of pay-by-weight. That is not being abandoned. The Minister is looking at an effective workable position so that people - big users and small users - are incentivsed to reduce the amount of waste gong out.