James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Senator has asked valid and important questions. I propose to put my block of questions along with those asked by the Senator and put them to the various witnesses. I am not sure if there is a particular natural order of reply or if different witnesses want to comment. Perhaps the Department officials want to respond initially and then we will take responses before moving on to taking questions from Senator McDowell and Deputy Troy. I call on Mr. Collins to comment first.

Mr. Matthew Collins:It is important to understand the context of this matter. The tyre waste problem was a critical issue that impacted on rural communities. The fact that 750,000 waste tyres will be collected by the taxpayer this year is a real matter of concern. More than €1 million of taxpayers' money will be used to address the issue in 2017. The original scheme dates back almost a decade. In 2007 regulations were brought in but within three years the matter had become a major issue in the media because the "Prime Time" programme carried out a special investigation into the issue. Later a further report was conducted into the sector and, again, concerns were raised.

Let me outline what happened. Around 2014 we engaged with the different stakeholders in this area. Between 2014 and this year there has been an extensive range of discussions and meetings. There have been multilateral meetings with the tyres working group to which all stakeholders were invited. Some stakeholders chose not to attend but we continued to provide information to all stakeholders throughout the process. We try to operate in the most open manner possible. I would have to say we were not cavalier about this matter. We recognised that there are real businesses involved in this sector that have their own legitimate concerns. However, at the same time we were facing one of the most critical local environmental issues throughout the country. The fact that 23 local authorities have applied in recent months for special funding to tackle waste tyres demonstrates how extensive this issue was.

I appreciate what was said by Ms Murphy from the Irish Road Haulage Association. She talked about the level of job creation her sector provides in Ireland yet it was rural Ireland that faced the brunt of the environmental damage that was being caused. We had to balance difficult competing factors. On the one hand, there were commercial concerns. On the other hand, damage was being done from an environmental perspective that had an impact on individual farmers and communities throughout the country. That is why concerns were raised about the effectiveness of the original self-operated scheme called the track scheme.

We looked to see what options were available to us as a State and a society to address the waste charge. We had some models of producer responsibility initiative, PRI, schemes that were operating. That is the reason we chose to go down the route of the Repak End-of-Life Tyres, ELT, model. It presented the best opportunity, as a State, to provide a functioning and effective mechanism for the management and recovery of waste tyres throughout Ireland.

It is true to say that we have also considered whether the issue will be subject to review. I can assure members that one thing we do a lot of is continual monitoring of what is happening in the sector and reviewing of the implementation of our policies. This is the process. We have had an ongoing review and learned from what did and did not work. We were alarmed by the number of issues. Many Deputies raised issues with us and we also responded to concerns raised by local authorities and community representatives from around the country. We have learned from the process. Engaging with the people allowed us to address concerns and design a model that we think will be effective.

I accept that it will not be possible to meet every concern expressed by the commercial sector. The process of discussion took place between 2014 and right up until this year. There has been a three-year process during which the working group met regularly. There have been quite a number of bilateral meetings. In fact, the Minister also carried out a number of bilateral meetings to take account of the concerns expressed by the different sectors. It is a challenging policy choice for him because he must take account of the valid concerns that have been expressed. He must also live up to our obligations under European legislation in order to protect the environment. We have obligations to Europe and to the local communities who are affected by this matter.

To be clear, it is true that a six and 12 month review were agreed to as part of the tyres working group, a fact that is known to all of the stakeholders. Again, we will consider the matter. We would like to continue that level of engagement with the stakeholders. For example, we have invited the Irish Road Haulage Association to engage further with us about their concerns. We also continue to engage with the IFA on the issues the association has raised about tyres used by farmers.

There is clear evidence of our willingness to engage with stakeholders. For example, we engaged with the Irish Farmers Association to develop an approach to tackling farm plastics and the process has been very informative. We are more than open to engaging with the different stakeholders.

In terms of price fluctuations in Northern Ireland, it is important for us to make it clear that we are not introducing a new surcharge. The original scheme already had charges built into the arrangement. We are introducing a very clear and visible environmental charge.

It is not going to be the key driver of the concerns. What is really happening due to Brexit North and South is the currency changes. That is the key driver of trade flows over the Border rather than the different categorisation of a charge being used for environmental management.

A question was posed to the EPA about enforcement. I assure committee members that the enforcement of this particular area has been put as one of the priorities of our enforcement policy by the Government. That is implemented by the regional waste enforcement officers. Our waste management system is operated on a regional basis now. It is agreed by all the waste stakeholders. Tyres are a priority not just for this scheme, nor the initiative to recover 750,000 tyres, but also in terms of the enforcement scheme because it is important that all stakeholders understand there should be a level playing field and that the level of compliance will grow in time. The level of compliance to date for the scheme that has still to reach its implementation date is very positive. More than two thirds of members have signed up at this stage.

The authorities in Northern Ireland have also been involved in this process so they are fully aware of the process we have been engaged in. They were part of the tyres working group. We will encourage them to look at how we are implementing this. We have shared quite a lot of policy interaction between North and South. It is something that we think is very important to maintain and that we continue to have regular meetings. We will meet again with our counterparts in Northern Ireland this week. We are continuing to give a strong focus to our engagement with the Northern Ireland authorities, albeit I recognise the current administrative difficulties under which they are operating.

Some questions were asked about fuel. If it is okay I might let the EPA address the alternative uses of fuel. I might leave the question about the commercial sensitivity of data to the witnesses from the Producer Register Limited, PRL, to address how the black box operates and how data are protected.