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

Those were very interesting presentations. We could talk until the cows come home about this matter. As a society, we really need to start consuming more and give up our addiction to economic growth, as I am always saying.

Mr. Schweitzer raised some excellent points that I agree with. The non-recycled plastic packaging levy is being paid from the general budget. That is crazy when the polluter pays or, in this case, the producer pays model is a far better and more sustainable option. I agree with Mr. Schweitzer about the tax being placed on virgin plastics, but I have a simple question for him. What is the position with the Right to Repair campaign? It is such a great idea. The work Mr. Schweitzer is doing is clearly excellent. I mentioned it to a few people in the constituency yesterday after reading Mr. Schweitzer's opening statement. These people would have been climate aware and anxious to do their bit but they had never heard of it. They were delighted to hear about it. I would like if we could see more about how to get this into the regular media, not just specialist media. Maybe Mr. Schweitzer could tell us how quickly the campaign communications are going around that.

Ms O'Brien gave an excellent presentation. I have very few questions. I agree so much with what she said. We need a radical change away from our current disposable economy. We cannot recycle our way out of this climate crisis. As Ms O'Brien stated, we need real leadership on this matter. What she said about paying a premium for buying only what we need or want is spot on. When I lived abroad, I never did a big shop. I lived in Spain for five years and we never did a big shop. We did a local shop all the time. I am only thinking about it now. I never took the car to the shop either because it was within walking distance and you would buy what you needed that day. You were buying fresh produce and there was very little waste. You were not finding things at the back of the fridge that were going off.

I also liked what Ms O'Brien said about the forever chemicals. It is frightening. Senator Boylan spoke of the compostables stuff we are using in the canteen here in Leinster House. We should be doing something about this. For the past few months, now that we are back here, I have been thinking that it is an awful pity that if you are getting a takeaway lunch, there is nowhere to compost any of the products that make it up. Now, however, I am glad that there is nowhere to deposit them. They should be going in the bin.

I always worry that we are consuming too much. We cannot recycle our way out of this. The rate we are consuming at is totally unsustainable. That is the real elephant in the room. I would be grateful if Ms O'Brien could expand on what she was saying about her work on Capitol Hill. She said people would say that they could not do that and then, as we saw through this Covid crisis as well, what they say cannot be done can actually be done very quickly when there is a crisis, and we are in a crisis.