Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Sherlock for presenting to the committee. The Bill has Sinn Féin's full support and Deputy Quinlivan outlined that during the Second Stage debate but I also want to acknowledge Senator O'Sullivan's work in the Seanad in proposing the earlier Bill, which, unfortunately, was not supported by the Government. It shows that there is quite a lot of cross-party support for this in both Houses. It is also important to state that when the Government chose to vote against Senator O'Sullivan's Bill, there were already precedents in three EU member states - Great Britain, France and Sweden - where legislation was either passing or the Commission had indicated that it had no objection to legislation passing. In fact, the Commission made it clear earlier last year that the banning of certain types of microplastics in cosmetics could be very consistent with the EU Internal Market rules so there was no automatic assumption. The Government knew that at the time but still chose the position it took.

Does Deputy Sherlock have any more information he can share with the committee either about the progress of those legislative bans in those three EU member states or other jurisdictions? I understand that a report was made available to the Commission about the environmental impact of these kinds of cosmetic products early last year. At that stage, Commissioner Vella indicated that the Commission was possibly looking at an EU-wide piece of work to reduce the negative environmental impacts. I am not suggesting that we should wait for that to happen - we should proceed with legislation here - but is Deputy Sherlock aware of the status of this initiative? If either he or Senator O'Sullivan have any information they can share, the committee would benefit from it.