Privatisation
Senator Norris welcomed Senator Hackett, then argued that privatisation, especially of bin services, was damaging and profiteering. A brief exchange with Senator Buttimer followed before the Chair moved to the next speaker.
I have already spoken on the wireless about Gay Byrne. I knew him for over 40 years. I will be speaking about him again twice on television this evening so I will leave it to my colleagues to pay tribute to him. He was a most remarkable man.
I welcome very warmly to Seanad Éireann Senator Hackett. I have only just met her but I can tell instinctively that she will be a great Senator, like her predecessor from the Green Party.
I wish to raise the issue of privatisation, which seems to be a madness spreading all over this country. The bin services were privatised, which was an absolutely lunatic idea. We are now paying about three times and in three separate ways for the collection of bins. Half a dozen different bin companies are charging up and down the streets of residential areas at all hours of the day and night. In the old days, they used to pick up the rubbish.
Nowadays they do not. They just pick up those that have their tags. We are provided in my street with plastic bags for the rubbish but they are useless. One has to buy the plastic bags but they are so thin that seagulls reef them and spread the rubbish all over the road.
On top of that, this weekend once again, two enormous black plastic bin liners were left in the street, right outside my front door. Within minutes, the seagulls had got at them and spread the rubbish all over the street. It is absolutely unacceptable. For the entire weekend, the street was filled with rubbish, knee deep. It is a disgrace. The Government should lean on local authorities and say it is time they got their act together and forgot the idea of privatisation. As I have noted previously, such companies are not registered in Ireland for tax purposes and, therefore, we do not know anything about their profits. They are a collection of gangsters.
Comment on this
I remember when they were burning out one another's lorries. It is outrageous. One would not get it from the mafia. We ought to take a firm stand and demand an end to privatisation in this country. We need to have a sense of national identity and community, and to look after the people, not after the business interests allowing such companies to profiteer.
