Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

Based on research in the city of San Francisco, it takes 16,380 litres of oil to produce 1 million plastic bags. The import of this for Ireland, where based on the revenue of €22.6 million in 2007 we used approximately 130 million bags, is that this broadly translates to 1.7 million litres of fuel used in 2007 to produce plastic bags. These figures speak for themselves.

It is time for us to learn from international best practices in levies on plastic bags. Italy, which previously experimented with a levy, has brought in an outright ban. San Francisco has also brought in an outright ban. They are proving successful. It is time that we in Ireland faced that challenge. It is the answer to the problem.

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