Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The committee will not find me wanting on that issue.

Many producer responsibility, PRI, reviews are ongoing across many waste streams. We conducted one recently on packaging and I refer members to this on our website. They can examine it and make recommendations in the context of implementation. However, I am not proceeding with a packaging levy. There are ways to deal with this issue without imposing additional costs on retailers and so on.

Air quality is a hugely important issue, which I prioritised during the EU Presidency. The first item on the agenda during the informal Presidency meeting in Dublin was how to make progress on this. The European Commission has published a thematic paper on air quality. Side by side with that, I engaged with my Northern Ireland counterpart and an all-island study is being carried out currently. The work of the consultants on behalf of both jurisdictions is under way and they will report to us by the end of May next year. Their recommendations will feed into the further actions we need to take on air quality. It is important this is done on an all-island basis for the reasons Deputy Humphreys outlined, especially smuggling. Smoky coal is the big issue and I have indicated it will be banned by 2016. All the distributors and manufacturers know we have set this target date and they can devise alternatives to supply fuel to householders. We had a positive announcement arising from that in Foynes, County Limerick. The creation of 100 jobs was announced by CPL, which manufactures alternative fuel products to the ones we have become used to, which are damaging to air quality. There is a great deal of activity in this State and in Northern Ireland in this regard.

We have good engagement with local authorities through the waste enforcement network with the EPA regarding bonfires and so on. We have continued to emphasise the importance of that for rural areas at our regular meetings.