Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My amendments Nos. 15 and 17 have been included in this grouping although they are on slightly different topics.

Amendment No. 15 seeks to insert that where targets are being set that we would have, as a minimum targets set “in Construction, Food, Clothing and Textiles, Equipment, and other relevant sectors”. Leaving it that targets would be set on a sectoral basis without calling out in the legislation the priority sectors would miss an opportunity to recognise that the really big sectors in terms of their impact on the circular economy are the construction, food, textiles and equipment sectors and probably in that order. As construction accounts for more than half of our materials use and not far short of half of our waste generated, only 10% of which is recovered in any way for a use other than to go to landfill, we have a really serious problem in construction.

Food is a key sector for us. In terms of managing the material flows and getting fresh thinking, while the food sector has shown signs of change, and is probably ahead of the construction sector in that sense and there is a greater consciousness about the recovery of food waste, it still represents a massively important sector from our point of view. It is a similar situation for the other sectors that I have named and I could go into details but I do not want to hold up the committee.

Amendment No. 17 refers to lines 30 and 31 on page 10 and that is where the circular economy strategy is expected to set targets in respect of the repair and reuse of products. My amendment seeks to insert "improved maintenance and utilisation patterns of products and materials". For example, in the transport sector, because 95% of the time the vehicles we have purchased and own are idle, we need to move to sharing platforms that increase the rate of utilisation of these products which will, as a consequence, reduce the material consumption associated with travel. Similarly, it is possible to improve the maintenance of equipment and achieve much better performance from the materials that we use if maintenance is factored into the arenas where we set targets. This goes to a deeper problem because I believe the thinking from the Department around this Bill has very much come from the waste end of the pipe. One of the shifts that we need to see is to start to anticipate and redesign better processes than simply seeking to handle the waste stream in a different way. That is why sharing platforms or servicisation, as it is called in the literature, is a way to cut down on material use and achieve better outcomes from the materials that we do use. My amendments differ slightly from the topic that Deputy Whitmore discussed but have been grouped with these amendments.