Mr. Séamus Clancy:

I thank Deputy Troy. We are not civil servants but we work closely with the Civil Service in trying to define where we are going. We do not get €6.5 million from anybody. It comes from the visible fee that the consumer pays, which is €2.80 a tyre plus VAT. VAT is charged at the same rate on all. It is taking what is an existing charge today, which will vary from €1.76 right up to €3.50 and beyond, plus VAT, charged by retailers to the consumers for a tyre that they have purchased and for the waste tyre being taken away. The core issue now is taking that money and ensuring it is used for the purpose for which it was intended which is the environmental management of that tyre.

In regard to tyres outside the jurisdiction, having looked at 20 countries throughout Europe, the rate, at €2.80, is very much on par with what is out there. When it comes to large and small truck tyres, the average charge in Europe various between €10 and €14 a tyre. By all means, if a person buys tyres outside of the jurisdiction, that is what he or she will pay for the environmental disposal of those charges.

With regard to the facilities that are being used outside of Ireland, they are subject to transfrontier shipment regulations and the identification of those facilities are subject to environmental regulations in those countries and only approved through the transfrontier shipment, TFS, office here in Ireland. That is for the transportation of any waste that leaves the country.

With regard to Repak itself, we are a not-for-profit organisation. There is a detailed breakdown which all the stakeholders have around the table here of how the €2.80 was made up. For the record, there was a total of 28 meetings held with all the sub-groups, in which some of the participants here decided to partake and some decide not to partake. That goes all the back to March 2015. The haulage sub-groups met three times again in 2016, and the end of waste criteria sub-group was in June 2016. There has been comprehensive engagement with industry and with all the stakeholders. Those who chose to participate did so in a voluntary and open way, and some decided not to participate.

Mr. Fox was asked how many members he represents. It be an interesting question for all the stakeholders here to see how many members they have in their respective associations versus the 3,000 economic operators we expect are out there in the market. There is only one thing here that everybody has to remember. It is the consumer who is paying for this, one way or another. It is making sure that we are doing right by the consumers, in using the money that they pay currently that is now being regularised, ensuring it is spent in the most cost-effective way for recycling and the recovery of the tyres as it was intended, and to stop the blight on the landscape of tyres being dumped illegally. The system prior to 1 October placed no responsibility on the industry to account for the tyres that it was disposing of. From 1 October, through the scheme, members, as in the industry, will be accountable for those that join up to the scheme for where their tyres are disposed of, recovered or recycled, or whether they go to a waste-to-energy plant.