Mr. Matthew Collins:

I do not think there is any proposal to wait and let everybody else legislate first. It is not that we do not have a proposal. We have a fully-functioning and operational extended producer-responsibility scheme that is achieving and far exceeding its existing targets. That is the current status. We do not yet have a mandatory obligatory target. The Commission will admit that this is a proposal. We are very hopeful that it will be approved. However, no targets have been set yet. It is subject to negotiation at the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.

Different countries have many varied experiences. We need to understand the dynamics within countries. For example, Belgium does not have a DRS and is achieving the current recycling target of 86%. Is a DRS the only solution to this problem? I cannot say that it is; we do not have enough evidence to say that is the current situation in Ireland.