COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE (1)

Monday, September 21, 2009

QUESTION NO. 4

QUESTION: Councillor M. Corr

"To ask the Manager to give an indication of when the new payment system for bin collection should be in place, in order to alleviate concerns of residents in the Tallaght area who are entitled to waivers, given the difficulties with issuing tags etc. in these cases?"

REPLY:

The new system will enable the removal of bin tags.  Each customer will have an account and will able to credit their account with the equivalent cost of their bin tag.  The bins will only be lifted where there is adequate credit in the account but it will mean that customers will no longer have to be concerned about tags being stolen and the Council will have no concerns regarding the production of counterfeit tags.  Customers will be able top up their accounts on-line, by phone and to purchase credit in a large range of local outlets.  Waiver customers will have their accounts credited on a quarterly basis so that each quarter entitles them to six lifts - the equivalent of their current waiver pack.

In order to achieve this 83,000 individual customer accounts had to be established which linked the bin to the address.  Following this extensive piece of work over 83,000 grey bins had to be registered and a large number had to be retrofitted with a chip.  The registration of the bins required considerable customer co-operation and there are now only 2274 left to be registered.  It was anticipated that only 93% would be achieved so this level of co-operation from customers is quite unprecedented.  This was a complex operation in terms of the systems required, the negotiations which had to take place internally, establishment of outlets and the engagement with every household in the county.

Customer packs are now ready to issue - there is now a single outstanding issue to be negotiated with regard to the roll-out.  Once the roll-out commences - which at this stage is anticipated being mid-October, subject to the outstanding issue being agreed - it will take 10 to 12 weeks to complete the roll-out across the county.  In effect this should result in all bin tags being discontinued from 31st January 2010. All waiver customers have been issued with tags up to this date and tags will be facilitated during the roll-out of the new system up to this date so no difficulties should be encountered in this regard.  The schedule of routes for the changeover will be placed on the Membersnet so that Members will be aware and able to pass on information to constituents in addition to the notifications and advertising which will issue.