Ms Bernie Kiely:

That is fine. My understanding of the way the collections system is working is farmers do not bring plastic to the collection points or have it collected from their farms every year, rather, it is collected over two to three years. On the collection of statistics, and Mr. Moloney can probably say more regarding this as he has more knowledge about it than me, the Senator is talking about an ongoing stock of plastic being on farms. Farmers would be concerned if there was very negative talk about the handling of plastic wrap because the evidence is it is very responsibly managed. Farmers respond very supportively to the bring centres on bring days. A list of those bring centres is on the website. As Mr. Moloney said, the dates will be announced in due course for this season but the collection points that have traditionally been used throughout the country are all listed on the website.

Certainly, we are happy with the IFFPG using all its access through its stakeholders, particularly through the farm networks and the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, to encourage farmers to use the collection service and bring centres. We had recent discussions about what more the IFFPG can do in that regard and how farmers can be satisfied the levy they have paid is being used to recycle the material so that when they send it back through the IFFPG, they know this is the system they have already paid into and the material is being taken away and managed in a responsible and transparent manner.