Ross criticises 'flawed' sale of waste services by councils

QUESTIONS HAVE been raised in the Dáil about how Dublin City Council sold off its waste collection service to a firm which had to pay CIÉ more than €1 million for overcharging.

Independent TD Shane Ross said Greyhound Waste and Recycling had also won a “lucrative” contract with South Dublin County Council last year.

Describing the sale of the refuse service by the two local authorities to the firm as “flawed”, he said they went ahead despite the fact the company “had a blow-up” with CIÉ and had to pay it more than €1 million in compensation.

It was “strange” Greyhound had negotiated these deals “in a non-competitive tender situation”, he said.

The Dublin South TD also questioned the use of consultants by county councils to select companies for these contracts, “specifically Ernst Young, which has a history the State is inquiring into at present”.

He raised the issue amid controversy surrounding the company’s warning to 18,000 Dublin city households which had not registered or paid €100 up front, that it would cease collection from today.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny told Mr Ross if he had information about wrongdoing he should notify the Dublin City Council manager, the Minister for the Environment and the local government auditor.

Mr Kenny told Mr Ross: “you claim the tender was flawed and that there was wrongdoing”. He said it was his “duty and responsibility” to do this if he had information no one else had.

But Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins accused the Taoiseach of a “cop out” because the information was in the public domain.

Mr Ross said the chief executive of Iarnród Éireann told an Oireachtas committee under the previous government “that the money charged by Greyhound did not tally with the work done”.

He said that in light of this, the current Government should have taken Greyhound “off its favoured list. How can a contract be given to a company which has already compensated a State company?”

Mr Ross said that when asked why it had given the contract to Greyhound despite its overcharging CIÉ, a South Dublin County Council spokesman said no one involved in the sale of the refuse service was aware of any previous difficulties between Greyhound and CIÉ.

Mr Ross said the contracts were not awarded on the Taoiseach’s watch but he should “give the House some comfort” that contracts of this sort would be examined more carefully by central government.

Mr Kenny said the local government audit system had to look at each individual company and he called on Mr Ross to notify the relevant authorities of any knowledge he had of wrongdoing. He also called for “common sense” to be used in the dispute with 18,000 householders.

The Taoiseach said there were people who could not raise the €100 required before the collection system began. “I would have expected the company would have been flexible and agreed that if a customer wants to pay their way as the vast majority of people do, they should be able to have flexibility to pay €20 or €50 in order that the system can operate.”

He said people wanted to pay their way “and if there is a restriction, ways of removing it should be considered in order that refuse can be collected in a proper way”.