Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My concern is the Border issue. I have not reconciled how this circle is to be squared. Two systems on this island will not work. The men and women in the white vans on both sides of the Border will have field day with this. The Border counties have been mentioned. Tyres from the North are often found as far south as Kerry and Cork. That is the reality. Ireland is a small island, it being a little over 300 miles in length. How this is to be done has not been explained.

In regard to previous discussions on the issue, in the previous Dáil I was spokesperson for the environment when it was linked to local government. As far as I recall, there was only one meeting with our counterparts in the North on a number of environmental issues, including tyres. I open to correction - there are probably minutes available of that meeting - but as far as I can recall all of the people who participated in that meeting, including Assembly Members, Deputies and Senators, were in agreement that a uniform system for the island of Ireland was required. Perhaps the Department officials would explain how it is proposed the two systems will work. If following Brexit we end up with a hard border, unless there is a soldier with a machine gun stationed not only on every road, but in every field on each side of it, it will not be possible to stop cross-Border trade. We have had an open border for 21 years and that is not going to change. It will not happen. People North and South will not tolerate it. We have an open Border and that is the future. Regardless of what we come up with here, two systems for end-of-life tyres is unrealistic. I would welcome a response to that from the Department officials.

The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, interacts with the local authorities in regard to enforcement. Perhaps the witnesses from the EPA would elaborate on the role of the local authorities in that regard. In regard to Repak, Mr. Keohane mentioned that 1,489 people have signed up to the scheme and there are 120 collectors. How many collectors have not signed up? The industry representatives have called for the introduction of a back-loaded scheme rather than a pay-at-purchase scheme. I see where they are coming from, but how would the back-loaded scheme work? Are they certain it can be set up in a way that ensures everything is captured and 20% to 40% of tyres do not end up in a field somewhere? I note the problems the industry representatives have identified in relation to the other scheme but I ask them to elaborate on how what they are proposing will capture all of tyres processed through the wholesale and retail markets here.

On the agricultural issue, I have visited a lot of farmyards over the past six or seven months for various reasons. The improvement in compliance by farmers is notable. Every shed now has a gutter on it and there is no water or effluent leakage into fields or water courses and so on.

Farmers have tightened up environmental standards across the board which demonstrates that some schemes are working and the IFA, ICMSA and other bodies have bought into them and are pushing them. I cannot see for the life of me why a farmer has to register each tyre on a silage pit. It is grand introducing this on Kildare Street but when this is implemented in the agricultural sector, it will be bureaucracy gone made. We have to find a simpler way to do this. Piles of tyres are not thrown in the corners of fields. Farmers use the same tyres year after year on silage pits. If they need more, they will be get them and they are responsible in their use of them. They will not dump tyres. It is amazing how neat farmyards have become over the past 15 or 20 years. I have been in yards for a number of reasons this year observing what is going on. Even over the past four or five years, there have been huge improvements, which is all to the good. Environmental standards have improved but I ask the departmental officials to address the provision of a simpler scheme. There are obvious ways to address this but I do not wish to hold up the meeting discussing them. The Department must revisit this issue.

No matter how well-intentioned this statutory instrument is, I cannot see how it can be ensured this will work with two systems and 520 km of a border. There are good people living on each side of the Border. However, anywhere in the world where there is an open border, people on either side will take advantage of it and not because they are evil. For example, if something is 2/6d on this side of the border and it is 3/6d on the other side, people will go where it is 2/6d and there is a different set of regulations. For as long as the Border has been in place, that has gone on. The people living along it do not have two heads and they are not different from the rest of us. It is a fact of life that this is what will happen. It relates to the iron laws of economics. They play the capitalist game of supply and demand, cost and return.

The reality is tyres are going south as far as Cork, Cobh and Bantry and not just to the Border counties. The two systems will not work and a uniform system on the island is the only way to address this. I would like the Department and Repak to address that question.