Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their very informative contributions. They are very helpful in terms of the committee's work-through of this legislation, which is really important.

The scale of the challenge was mentioned. There are many like-minded people on this committee, but I wonder sometimes about the barriers to the implementation of this type of measure. As mentioned earlier, there is a cohort out there who are completely on board and doing this stuff already, but is only a tin percentage of people. How do we scale up in terms of the population as a whole? In her opening statement, Ms O'Brien mentioned convenience and what creates it. Does she have an opinion on how we can scale up reuse and on the piece in terms of convenience? The latter is a reality in terms of the type of lives people live. In Ireland, one needs two people in employment to purchase a house. Those who have children are juggling much of the time. People are back commuting having not had to do so for more than a year.

We need to get this legislation right. There are elements of it on which we need to hear from the witnesses and others to make it stronger. In the Irish experience and in the international experience, are there other elements that need to come with this in terms of work-life balance, a four-day working week, public awareness and so on? What other elements need to come with this measure to create the environment where these types of system changes can happen? I accept that is a broad question.

The other piece for Ms O'Brien and Mr. Schweitzer is the role of the State and its agencies in terms of being a leader in this area. I worked in the health service for a long time. The opportunity there to be a leader in terms of managing waste is massive in terms of the €22 billion budget and the level of consumption in terms of disposables. I worked in laboratories, where the amount of waste generated was incredible. Is there an opportunity for the State to be a leader in this area?