Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I would like to get an understanding of exactly what level of consultation took place, and perhaps this needs to come from Re-turn Ireland itself.

My guess is that either there was no or very limited consultation or that when consultation happened, the feedback it got was not incorporated into the design because we essentially have machinery in all the major supermarkets across the country that people with disabilities cannot use and that is completely unacceptable. We talk about just transition. We want everybody to be able to participate in the circular economy and we want everyone to be able to do their bit for the environment, and we have potentially set up a scheme that includes a significant portion of Irish people. That is just not good enough. With regard to the Government establishing Re-turn Ireland, what was the Government's direction to Re-turn as to the level of consultation it had to take regarding making those machines accessible to people?