Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Is that not self-regulation? The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is the oversight body nationally and has a huge remit. To ask the scheme to come back with its audit is appropriate in a way but the Department is the entity, so I assume the latter has the levers of power to gather information on where the plastic came in and how much has been recycled and then give an estimated figure. I know that it is not going to be good news but please estimate how much plastic is out there so we have a decent indication of the work that is required to make sure we can gather that up. The big thing for us, as an industry, is that we are sustainable. However, the industry is not sustainable if we are leaving 4,000 tonnes of plastic behind every year, and that is a key issue for this committee.