Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have heard a lot of talk in the past few months about the new deposit return scheme. The scheme is welcome and the vast majority realise it is important because people want to do the right thing. However, the company, Re-Turn, tasked with rolling out the scheme did not do the right thing by disabled people. In 2018, Ireland ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Article 4(3) of that convention states that consultation with disabled people and their representative organisations, disabled persons organisations, DPOs, should take place on all Government or public body schemes or programmes. I know of one organisation that was consulted a number of months ago by the company and told it would be back to it for consultation, but no follow-up was done. I am not aware of any other consultation with any organisations or individuals.

I think it is obvious that there was no consultation. I am not sure if the Minister of State has used the machines yet but I did for the first time at the weekend. The place where one inserts the bottles and cans is at my eye level. The machines are too high for wheelchair users to reach either where one inserts the bottles or cans or to reach the receipt for what they have put in. There are also no Braille markings or raised areas on the logo to make them readable for blind people or people with visual impairments. Many people who do not have access to transport, have mobility issues and order their shopping online and have it delivered are being charged 15 cent or 25 cent, the same as the rest of us, but they cannot return the items to retrieve their deposit. To quote an advocate, the newly introduced deposit return scheme is effectively a "stealth tax” for people with disabilities who are unable to return the containers.

How can an online shopper with a disability who is unable to get to one of the shops equipped with the machines recoup the additional expense? One of the people who has engaged with me on this topic told me there is a boil water notice in place for the last nine months where she lives. She has no option but to buy bottled water. She will now pay 25 cent extra per bottle with no way of recouping that. The Minister says the only people who will pay more are those who will not bring back the bottles but there was no thought for those who cannot bring back the bottles. Anyone with a disability who does not drive or who is not able to bring their bottles or cans back will be charged and yet not be able to recoup the money. Setting up an accessibility consultation group to review issues such as these is not good enough. This shows there was a complete lack of consultation with disabled people's organisations or disabled individuals prior to the launch of the scheme.

If there was, it was simply a box-ticking exercise and the concerns of the DPOs and disabled individuals were simply ignored.

In 2018, Greenpeace, the environmental NGO, stated, "As we move to rid our oceans, beaches, and parks of unnecessary single-use plastics, disabled people shouldn't be used as a scapegoat by large corporations or governments who are unwilling to push suppliers and manufacturers to produce a better solution." On Committee Stage of the Circular Economy, Waste Management (Amendment) and Minerals Development (Amendment) Bill 2022, the Minister did not accept an amendment that would have allowed the Minister to make regulations excluding an environmental levy charge on customers for certain single-use items where those items are required by that person due to a disability. The Minister stated that the circular economy strategy was significantly amended in the Dáil and now included a specific requirement on the Minister to take the national disability inclusion strategy and the roadmap for social inclusion into account when making the circular economy strategy. However, he obviously did not take them into account. It is a pity that one of the Ministers from the Department is not here. I know they cannot be and I thank the Minister of State for being here to take the question. I want to know how the Minister is going to address these issues.

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