I want to acknowledge Deputy Sherlock for her work in bringing forward this Bill. We in the Social Democrats will be supporting it. It is a shame that the Minister of State is not willing to engage further than to simply vote it down on the promise that a review will be released in an unspecified time. As somebody who believes in local government and local elected representatives, I want to acknowledge those in Dublin Central and the north inner city and Dublin 7 who do tireless work to advocate on behalf of the residents, many of whom are here today. That is why we are here and what is motivating us to come in here is the removal of the derogation for bags. I will talk about that in a couple of minutes but before I do I want to come back to some of the things the Minister of State said in his opening speech, particularly the last paragraph. The Minister of State said: Instead, we will continue to pursue evidence-led reform informed by independent analysis, stakeholder engagement and the updated waste action plan for the circular economy, so that any future changes to Ireland's waste collection systems are based, not on assumption but on evidence and delivers lasting benefits for households, communities and the environment. Does the Minister of State consider the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to be an independent body that uses evidence to come to its conclusions? The Dublin city task force was commissioned by Simon Harris and was chaired by David McRedmond from An Post. He engaged with the evidence and with stakeholders and came to the same determination, namely, that what we have at present for waste management services, not only in Dublin but nationally, is no longer tolerable. It has led to a system that is clearly not efficient or not suitable for the purpose intended. We need reform on a scale much broader than even what we are talking about today. There should be a process of the remunicipalisation of waste management. That is not an assumption. Nor is it an assumption to say that streets such as the ones I represent in Stoneybatter have narrow pathways. If they remove the capacity to leave out a bag and introduce a requirement to put out a wheelie bin instead, I will not be able to get a pram or a wheelchair past. It will create a scenario where vulnerable people will simply not be able to get up their street for potentially three days because there will be a multitude of different providers steaming up these streets, which were never created for such large vehicles. This will mean that people simply will not be able to get through their locality easily. That is not an assumption. It will shortly be the lived reality for people in Dublin 7 as a result of the removal of the derogation relating to plastic bags. I can see the logic of that up to a point. We have a scenario where seagulls and foxes are tearing at these bags. Rubbish is being strewn along the street and that cannot continue. However, the solution is not to remove the means by which a person can simply walk, use their wheelchair or push a pram down the street. Those things should not be in competition with each other. The remunicipalisation of waste is going to cost money. That is a simple fact, but public services often should operate at a loss. We have created a scenario where large-scale private operators are generating an absolute fortune for themselves but where the payback for the community is a service that often does not meet the standard envisaged. We simply cannot continue along those lines. There is a lot in this Bill that I will be supporting, but we need action that happen quickly rather than being obliged to wait for a review that will released after an unspecified period. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission released a report in 2018, which highlighted Dublin as an outlier in terms of having absolutely no control over its waste. The commission updated its report in 2025 and stated, "The current market structure will never properly deliver for the Irish public. A policy change is long overdue. That is a competition authority saying there is no competition for the market. We all have to open our eyes to that. We probably do not need any more reviews. I appreciate that there is a review coming. I ask the Minister of State to engage with Dublin City Council on something more urgent. The derogation relating to rubbish bags will end in October. The ending of the derogation has been delayed for three months as a result of the advocacy of councillors at local level. We cannot have a scenario that when October comes, people will simply not be able to walk the streets in the Stoneybatter area If the Minister of State is not going to support Deputy Sherlock's Bill, maybe he can support an appeal from all of us to engage with the local authority about finding a solution that is much better than the one people are quite literally dreading at the moment. I thank the Ceann Comhairle so much for her work over the past year.

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Hear, hear.

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