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

In chronological order, I support the first amendment tabled by Deputy Whitmore. A number of other amendments share the theme and seek to insert the principles of just transition throughout the Bill, which is really important.

My amendment No. 13 seeks to confer responsibility such that "the circular economy strategy shall" rather than the "circular economy strategy may" and that this is done "Within 6 months". This is an issue that arose during the pre-legislative scrutiny, PLS. Amendment No. 13 seeks to tighten the timeline.

As for amendment No. 19, because various witnesses raised the need do so do during pre-legislative scrutiny, amendment No. 19 seeks to insert a provision on "how to achieve greater harmonisation of civic amenity site services in terms of opening hours, materials accepted, accessibility, tariffs charged and an examination of the co-location of these facilities with co-operative and social enterprises". An important feature of this legislation is that it needs to be embraced by communities and people need to realise a step change in the way that we do things and my amendment highlights one such way to do that.