What will it cost us?

IT is all very well for Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to announce that there is ‘no need to be panicked’ about the new bin charges regime, which will see flat collection fees abandoned and pay-by-weight or pay-bylift charges introduced instead. His words will bring little comfort to those on low incomes or with large families and who find it difficult to make ends meet.

As we have seen in the past, any rise in bin charges has an exponential effect on fly tipping and hazardous backyard burning of potentially toxic waste, both of which completely undermine the environmentally sound rationale of polluter pays.

The waste companies might easily have moved quickly to assuage any fears of massive price hikes but, when asked a series of simple questions yesterday by this newspaper, not one of them responded.

Until they do, the Taoiseach’s words are meaningless. He has, by his own admission, no power to cap charges, and instead insists competition will keep prices in check. We were told that about the energy market too, but there still is little difference between the prices charged by suppliers unless you switch annually from one to another to avail of sweetener deals.

The lesson, clearly, is to be savvy. Waste companies have no loyalty to their customers and their customers therefore should be equally promiscuous in the hunt for the best deal.