Would someone please tell me what is going on in this Chamber in respect of bin charges and the hike in the bin charges? I heard Deputy Jack Chambers on the media giving out about Panda increasing charges and the new contract that will allow the company to do dynamic things, such as enter a premises to check what is in a bin; the right to alter the charges in light of Government regulations and other issues, such as a rise in fuel costs; the right to charge €30 for cleaning a bin at the end of a contract; and the right to ensure the customer should indemnify Panda against any loss or damage to the bin. As Deputy Jack Chambers said, an empty Pringles packet in the wrong bin could result in a hefty fine. This is the Deputy Chambers who belongs to the Fianna Fáil party seated beside me that did a deal with the Government the other night to agree the party's motion in order to stop any other alteration of motions from ourselves and Sinn Féin.

Where was Deputy Smith?

Fianna Fáil did a deal.

Where was Deputy Smith for the debate?

Deputy Smith, without interruption

Yesterday, the Taoiseach said that he is about to reward people who treat their community and the environment well. How is this awarding people who treat their community and environment well with this nonsense from Panda?

The cartels are being allowed to do what they like. They have already said that they do not fear a regulator. They do not fear the set-up that the Government and Fianna Fáil have agreed.

It is a watchdog.

They may have their confidence and supply agreement, but they are certainly supplying each other with a lot of freedom to enable the bin companies do what they want with an important and essential service that people are paying dearly for.

The only thing that can be done to safeguard the service in future and to keep the environment safe in our cities and towns is for this service to be taken back into the ownership and control of the local authorities. The City Manager of Dublin City Council agrees with this. The city council is browned off - not to put too fine a pun on it - collecting illegally dumped waste while those who are getting the profits from the waste do not pay towards it. Last year, a total of €1.5 million was spent by the city council dealing with illegally dumped waste. The situation will get worse. It will get far worse with the hikes that are going to ensue. The Government need not tell me that this agreement will not raise them because it will.

The bin companies say they do not fear the regulator and that says it all. Will the Minister please tell me what is going on here? On the one hand the Government is making an agreement, while on the other, those involved are dividing among themselves about that agreement. They should get it right, do the right thing by the citizens and give the local authorities control of the services.

First, Deputy Smith would know what was happening if she bothered to attend the Dáil the other night when these issues were being debated. Deputy Smith was marked absent when decisions were being made and when the position that was going to be introduced was being explained. It is a matter of shedding crocodile tears now when these decision have been taken when she does not bother to fulfil her responsibility, come in and deal with these issues.

The truth is that we have a problem with waste. That is the nature of this problem. Deputy Smith's party is a party that talks about taking our global responsibilities seriously. If we want to respond to the challenges of climate change, the problems of global waste and the impact it is having on resource use in our world, then we have to change behaviour. We have to see people who deal with waste in their normal daily lives changing the way they do that. That has to happen in businesses but it also has to happen in homes. What we have at the moment is that many homes do not segregate or try to minimise the amount of waste. The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, indicated that €700 worth of food is discarded every year by the average household.

We are trying to achieve a situation whereby behaviour is changing but at the same time protect people who might be vulnerable. That is what is happening here. The system applies to half of households in the country already. Customers have an incentive system based on either a charge per lift or a charge per weight. That will now apply to all households. As a result, there will be an incentive for people to minimise waste and to use the three principles of good waste management: reduce, reuse and recycle.

As Deputy Smith probably knows, we have a real problem with contamination of the waste streams. Elements are put into segregated waste - whether into the green bins or black bins - that are not supposed to be contaminated by food products. If that segregation does not happen right then we create a major problem for the environment. Deputy Smith would be the first to complain if there was a dump provided and there were foul smells as a result of the system not being applied right.

What we are trying to do is change behaviour, but we are also protecting people. There will be an oversight of price monitoring to ensure that there is no gouging of consumers by abuses of this system.

They have been gouging people for years.

Deputy Smith should have come out and voted.

We have 67 waste providers. They all will have different schemes. People can pick and choose. We will be providing oversight of that. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has the power to deal with cartels if people find there is cartel practice. The commission has major civil and criminal powers to pursue anyone who adopts cartel practices.

The House has agreed that there will be strong monitoring of this change that it is bringing in and that people will be protected by those who have the power. There will be monitoring of pricing. Appropriate action will be taken to deal with it to protect people.

For the information of Deputy Bruton I live beside a facility that does separate and recycle and that bails food and other materials. We have major problems with the operation of Thorntons and the proximity of Thorntons to the community of Ballyfermot. We campaign continuously to try to get the Environmental Protection Agency to put some sort of controls on the company. We continuously campaign on that issue. I am aware of the smells and discomfort that is caused by this process.

I was here the other night until nearly 9.30 p.m. In my naivety as a new Deputy I understood that we would be voting on these motions and amendments today.

Deputies have to call a vote.

That is not going to happen, but I can see that Fianna Fáil has an internal problem, because some of that party's Deputies are dissatisfied with the confidence and supply arrangement with the Government.

I wish to make the Minister aware of something else. He talks about the motivation for keeping the environment safe and clean.

This is helping.

What is actually happening, because of the profits and money is to be made out of rubbish, is that fly-tipping is being given the go-ahead by this system and by the Government. As the prices increase, there will be more and more fly-tipping. There was never a single incident of it when the bins were in public control. We are now organising street meetings throughout the city in order to oppose the Government plans. People need their bins but they do not need this sort of abuse from the Government.

We all know the reason why the public sector is no longer in this business. It is because parties like Deputy Smith's party told people not to pay and refused to allow increases in charges that would have allowed collection to remain as a service in the public arena.

That is rubbish. Most bin services were privatised long before then.

Deputy Smith's party made conscious decisions to destroy that possibility.

Bin charges were in place for eight years by then.

We are dealing with the consequences of parties like Deputy Smith's party driving change in policy. We now have a policy that will promote better use and better segregation.

That has been the policy for a long time.

Rubbish.

This will, I hope, mean that the facility mentioned by the Deputy will be better managed because there will not be contaminated waste streams through it.

We have to live beside it, the Minister does not.

This is a progressive change that will bring about a better approach to meeting the huge global challenge presented by how waste streams should be managed and waste segregated and how we should minimise damage and protect the use of resources.

The Government is making a bags of it.

That is what this is about, no more, no less.

The Government's dishonesty will not-----

Deputy Bruton, 1: Deputy Smith, 0.

It is not even half time yet.