Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill. I have had only a quick read through of it but I think it makes some excellent points about living as lightly as we can. It would be interesting if we could put our mammies or nannies in charge of this. I am old enough to remember when children visited their cousins and they were invited up to their rooms to be given old clothes. For me, the circular economy is about recycling Moses baskets, prams and clothes and Sunday's dinner being Monday's tea and chicken bones being used to make stock. The waste of food in the world today is frightening. There is a famine in Yemen and we have food banks in our universities and soup kitchens. I know this is not about a return to the old days.

I have not gone into huge detail on the Bill, I just have not had time, but I will and look forward to working on it. I worry that there is infinite production and consumption, expansion and growth now. The economy when I was growing up is different to the one we are in now. I do not see Governments and economies getting this. The power and wealth is all based on a production and consumption model where, for example, it is cheaper to buy a new thing than get it fixed. Obsolescence is built into products. I worry that it is not so much the public that needs to buy into this but the leaders and Governments. The people here are all working for the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. Do they see that the Government and leaders are actually ready to embrace the radical changes that are necessary?