Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank our witnesses. The information they have given so far is incredibly valuable and very practical. I also thank Deputy Bruton for making suggestions in regard to witnesses.

Several years ago when I was starting to get into zero waste in a big way, there was one shop in Ireland I could think of which was zero waste. That has changed and now there are many places throughout Ireland doing that. It is still a lifestyle that people choose, for environmental reasons mostly, and that is what we need to change. I met a young woman with no children who said she was spending every waking moment trying to make decisions about the types of choices she had, such as how to feed herself and so forth. We cannot operate like that. This Bill is a good step along the way.

I agree with some of the comments around changing the language from "may" to "shall", and the officials took that on board last time. As I said in regard to the climate action Bill, we made some changes to the language because of our recommendations as a committee, and we want to ensure future governments are obligated to hit targets.

That point made by Ms O'Brien about targets is an important one because you will miss targets unless you deal with some of the underlying issues that make it impossible to reach them. One of those is the finance around it. Having repair cafés is quite difficult with insurance and so on. It is practically impossible as a layperson who is not involved in an industry to run repair cafés. Could I have the witnesses' thoughts around the financial things we need to put in place? Zero VAT is very important. An Mheitheal Rothar in Galway raised this as an issue, that it is not viable as a business and therefore relies on grants to be able to run its operation as a social enterprise.

One of the main issues with compostability is that while people may sell things that are compostable, quite apart from the labelling and the different types of products that are used, the lack of compost facilities close to where people purchase the compostable items is a major issue. It means dumping in inappropriate facilities. Is there something we can put in policy that means you cannot sell these items unless you also have some facility to ensure people compost?

The last point is on incineration. Do the witnesses think that language needs to be changed in the Bill to ensure there is no leniency in regard to companies that might be using incineration for their waste? I brought this up last time.

It is nearly impossible for repair cafes to get insurance. VOICE has got insurance for repair cafes, but we are one of the only organisations that have them. I probably should not say it but we have lent our name to different repair cafes so they can fall under our insurance. It does not cover the repair of electronics. We cannot find any insurance for the repair of electronics. It has been impossible to run these for that reason.

For finance, 0% VAT is essential. Right now, if your CD player - I do not know if anyone uses them anymore - or DVD player breaks down, it is cheaper to buy a new one than repair it. I suggest 0% VAT or even tax credits for companies that buy refurbished or repaired items. I bought a used computer and still had to pay VAT on it. Maybe offer a tax credit to encourage the take-up of that.

On compostables and facilities for collection, I worry about compostables. It is referred to as "unfortunate substitution" because you are going from one single use to another single use. I read a statistic from a life cycle assessment of reusables. I would also like that to go on the record. I have two reports I would like to submit. It stated that 3 billion trees are logged every year globally in order to produce paper packaging and 6.5 million are used to make coffee cups alone. If we move from one single use to another, we are still extracting resources.

Instead of going down that route, it is much better to move towards reusables. Reusables, for environmental and economic reasons, beat single use every time. In terms of facilities to collect compostables, there might be a use for compostables for pre-made sandwiches. Put them in compostable packaging and provide street bins to collect the food and the packaging at the same time. A huge public awareness campaign would be required because when people are out and about, they put things wherever they see a bin. They do not care. I have gone to many festivals to monitor bins and I know that you have to tackle people to put things in the right bin.

The Senator said if compostable packaging is offered, there should be facilities. The problem is if you are getting compostable, you are often leaving. Even if the bins are there, you are down the street somewhere else when you finish the product. I worry about the switch to compostable products. We need to use reusables and push that. It is called "unfortunate substitution".

On incineration, is the Senator talking about the levies on incineration?