Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Plastic waste and recycling is a waste management issue and is overseen by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. Ireland has supported the ambition of the recent EU proposal on the reduction of the impact of plastic on the environment. The Council of the European Union recently agreed a text to bring to negotiations with the European Commission and the European Parliament. It is only by acting collectively and collaboratively with all member states that we will achieve the best outcome in this area. The Commission has cautioned that acting individually may compromise the effect of the proposal currently being negotiated by member states.

Notwithstanding this, actions taken by the Government to date to address the issue of plastic waste include the use of an extended producer responsibility model to deal with waste packaging, the funding of education and awareness campaigns and the provision of €2 million of annual funding to the Environmental Protection Agency's national waste prevention programme. Ireland is committed to the reduction of the impact of plastic waste on the environment and to encouraging increased reuse and recycling of materials to limit such waste. We will continue to actively engage with the EU Commission on this matter. Tax can be a blunt instrument in bringing about changes in behaviour and it is not always possible to target tax measures accurately, leading to dead weight in certain circumstances. While it has been possible to successfully implement very targeted measures such as the plastic bag levy, wider-reaching initiatives can give rise to significant collection and enforcement concerns. Sometimes regulation can provide a more direct approach but as I have said, my preference is to continue to engage collaboratively at EU level.