The Local Government Auditor highlighted the poor collection record of Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown when it comes to bin charges in his report on the 2008 accounts:

• The council is out of pocket to the tune of €27m on bin-charge arrears
• 9,000 households have paid virtually nothing at all of charges imposed from 2000-2004, resulting in arrears of €10m
• More than €10m is owed by 14,000+ households who have since moved to private providers ala Panda

The only penalty mechanism the council seems to be using is discontinuation – but how can you ever hope to collect arrears merely via discontinuation as private operators will just step in?

By taking such a soft line, the council is doing a disservice to the thousands of council customers who pay their waste charges without fail on a regular basis.