Final warning in bins dispute

Thousands of households have been put on a final warning for refuse collection after failing to register their bins.

Greyhound Recycling and Recovery did not follow through on an earlier threat to leave black bins unemptied, opting instead to give customers one last chance.

The reprieve for some of the 18,000 customers threatened this week with non-collection came after Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore called for a flexible, common sense approach to a dispute over advance payments.

Cross-party TDs and Senators have called on Environment Minister Phil Hogan to lean on Greyhound Recycling and Recovery to resolve issues, after the company bought Dublin City Council’s household waste business.

It is understood thatGreyhound has emptied all bins on runs in the city and left final warning letters for customers yet to register and pay an up-front €100 fee or at least a €62 advance fee.

Fianna Fáil deputy leader Eamon Ó Cuív has warned that the dispute puts Dublin at risk of becoming a cesspool with the tourist bonanza of St Patrick’s Day just weeks away.

“There is looming chaos in our capital city,” he said. “We are a month away from St Patrick’s Day when thousands and thousands ofpeople from home and abroad will visit our city. We want our city to be a showcase to the world.

“It is unfortunate and quite likely that what will be said by our visitors when they leave Ireland is that they will refer to Dublin as dear old dirty Dublin.”

No one from Greyhound has been available for comment on the dispute since a statement was issued warning the 18,000 customers.

Mr Gilmore urged the company to work with customers and warned that Greyhound may lose business if it does not.

“The view of the Government is that the company involved should be flexible. I think they should be mindful of the fact that there are other options open to households in a competitive waste collection market,” he said.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who is on a three-day trip in the US, was asked if he would direct his Environment Minister to intervene.

Mr Kenny said it was a matter for the city council rather than the Government to resolve.

“This is a tender process between the city council and the company. Now, I assume the company, in winning the tender, wanted to operate professionally and competently in the way that it should. And in getting over teething problems which obviously have implications for people, common sense is what has to be shown here,” said Mr Kenny. “The minister is maintaining a very keen interest in it, but the tender process is not between the Department of the Environment and the company, it is between the city council and the company, and the minister will be encouraging both sides to ensure that this is seen to happen and that the customers get a high quality service which they deserve and which they’ve paid for.”

It has been claimed that some homes have had no collections for six weeks.