Ms Siobhán Dean:

I will begin by answering the questions that have been asked about the specifics of the Bill. While those of us in the industry are very supportive of this legislation from an environmental impact perspective, we have some concerns about the definition. This is something we have highlighted with the Department. The point I would like to make about the definition of a microbead used in the text - "synthetic water-insoluble polymer" - is that all plastics are polymers but not all polymers are plastics. Therefore, the definition needs to be refined and aligned with other legislation, including that in the UK and pending legislation in Northern Ireland. We have not done any research on the impact on products of the proposed definition that is used in the general scheme. We are saying that the definition of microbead and the scope of that definition should be refined.

Many of the cosmetics companies here are SMEs. When we surveyed those companies in 2015, they said they were not adding any microbeads into their products anyway. We have no evidence at this stage that they have been introduced into Irish products. Any international companies that have said they have microbeads in their products are phasing them out. The microbeads covered by our definition of microbead are being phased out 100%, but that is not the case if microbeads are defined as they are in the existing proposed legislation.