Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response and for acknowledging the information and power imbalance between consumers and manufacturers that the right to repair principle seeks to address. As he said, it is a critical part of any circular economy approach. We had an exchange previously in the Dáil Chamber and the Minister of State referred then to ongoing developments at EU level and I was very conscious of that in drafting our amendment. However, also being conscious of how slowly things can move at EU level and the fact that there is not, as I understand it, even a draft of the directive yet, I would argue that it is time for us to move more swiftly and to be ahead of the curve. Given that the Minister of State and officials from Ireland have been engaged at EU level in considering how the European-wide approach is going to be framed in law, I would argue that we could do something here that paves the way for the introduction of the EU directive elsewhere and that makes us leaders on a circular economy and a right to repair approach. I will be withdrawing this amendment at this point but I do want to bring it back on Report Stage to have a further discussion. Indeed, we may wish to tweak it, in light of ongoing EU developments. I join Deputy O'Rourke in asking that there would be engagement with the Opposition on developments here because we all have the same motivation, to ensure that there is a genuine and effective right to repair for consumers, not just for digital electronic equipment, although that is clearly a priority, but also across the circular economy more generally.