Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Jennings for attending. It was unfortunate that owing to time constraints he was not able to present at an earlier hearing.

When introducing new measures to increase the level of recycling and cut out the wasteful use of plastics, it is important that we work with retailers and everyone involved in the supply chain to make them work. I was taken by one of the statistics given at the last hearing that 34% of plastic packaging was recycled. We know that this figure needs to rise dramatically for reasons such as developing a circular economy, reducing the wasteful use of plastics, environmental emissions, littering problems, the volume of plastics in the environment and so on. That will not be easy, but it is an essential policy objective which we all share.

The plastic bag levy was a huge success. As much as anything else and the 15 cent charge, its success was that it changed the public's perception of the wasteful use of plastics. While I am sure there were difficulties at the time in switching to the use of paper bags and so forth, does Mr. Jennings agree that one of the beneficial effects was the change in public attitudes? My sense is that there is a similar possibility to change our attitude to the use of plastic cups and bottles. A significant number of retailers now sell coffee. I can think of half a dozen newsagents near here, all of which have a coffee machine. There must be reasonable regulations for its use. It is dangerous enough as one is using boiling water and so forth. Is it as simple as plugging it in and not having to worry about it? Do retailers have obligations on the health and safety or food safety side? We do not want to over-regulate and make it impossible for businesses. However, I would have thought that in that aspect of the retail trade, there would already have been in place extensive health and safety and food safety regulations.