Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will address the Deputy's question about the deposit return scheme and his constituent who found that most of his containers were rejected. This is an aspect of the transition period, when retailers can still sell products that do not have a deposit logo on them. The two elements of customer dissatisfaction are bottles being rejected and having to bring them home and, second, the machine not working. It is critical we do better on both and we are. They are improving every day. I get the stats every day on them.

We notice that the kitchen appliances from our childhood could last decades and now, when we go to get something repaired, the repair person says it is five years old and asks why we do not buy a new one. What has changed there? Something has gone backwards.

We have gone towards more complex machines that are also more fragile or, possibly, have built-in obsolescence.

The way to make products work well, last a long time and be repairable must happen at the design stage. The EU's Ecodesign Directive for products will try to deal with that. The directive will guarantee spare parts, which is the problem mentioned by the Deputy because he could not source a little piece of plastic to keep a machine working. The directive will also ensure that service manuals are available, that the skills exist and that one can find a person who has those skills in one's area. Monaghan County Council has a website called repairmystuff.ieand I would like to work with the county council to make the situation better. Basically, we want to ensure that people can look in their area when something is broken in their house and find someone who can help.

There has been a loss of skills. A lot of our immigrants from eastern Europe and Ukraine are filling in the gaps as shoemakers, working in repair shops, etc. There is now a really good scheme to train people to fix kitchen appliances which was put together by Government agencies and manufacturers. For the first time people are being trained to fix appliances in a structured way in a classroom. Up to now such training had been done on the job by way of the apprenticeship method. The ability to fix the small number of appliances one might find in a kitchen is a skill that people can bring anywhere. Also, for the first time, the scheme trains women, which was almost unheard of in fixing kitchen appliances. There is no reason women should not do repair work as well. The programme has been very successful.

We are bringing in durability ratings and they are being introduced across the EU. When people go into a shop selling, for example, washing machines they can compare durability ratings in order to make an informed decision. For example, a display might show one brand of washing machine lasts five years, another lasts ten years, etc. The durability ratings are tested by an independent agency which estimates how long a product will last.

The combination of guaranteeing the availability of spare parts, service manuals and skills, durability ratings and building in durability into the design process are all part of the answer to the problem.