Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and members for having this matter included on the agenda. I welcome Mr. Fitzgerald. I understand that when the Department initiated the scheme it basically involved farmers paying a deposit upfront and they were to get a refund. Can Mr. Fitzgerald confirm that was the basis on which the scheme was set up? Farmers paid €5, €6 or €7 for a roll of plastic and they were supposed to get their money back when they brought the plastic back.

I also understand that the Department, with a stroke of a pen, changed green waste to amber and that caused a major problem. Green waste can be disposed of free of charge in other countries. I would like confirmation of that.

I understand there is something called a trammelling machine - I may have named it incorrectly - which the plastic is pushed through. Does that turn the plastic into green waste? Is it an expensive process?

Figures show that farmers have paid between €1.6 million and €2 million a year upfront for plastic upfront, or rather they paid for it after the companies that brought the plastic in had paid for it. At the end of the day, it is the farmers around the country making bales and silage who are paying for all this plastic. There is also the collection point to be considered. Am I right in saying that most plastics have doubled in weight when they are brought back from farms because they are covered in bits of muck and dirt and that we are looking at a cost of €50 a tonne? That suggests an income of at least €3 million a year for the body overseeing this.

I have done some research in this area. There are systems in place for recycling plastics. Setting up an industry would require machinery costing between €5 million and €6 million. Has anything been done in that regard? Is there an opportunity to undertake this type of endeavour in Ireland and avoid what has happened here?

My understanding from photographs I have seen is that large stockpiles of last year's plastic are being held by the people accredited with collection. Mr. Fitzgerald may not know that. What will be the outcome of that? Is it correct that between 10,000 and 14,000 tonnes of this waste is stuck in the hands of private individuals around the country? Chaos is about to occur because the Department is not doing anything to try to resolve this issue. Everything I have seen suggests this is like a closed shop.