Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

That is a fair point. It is something local authorities could and should be proactive on, in terms of issuing guidance to licence applicants on a case-by-case basis. That is really important. You have to assess these things. There are different street widths and footpath widths. In each case, the local authority will work with the premises owner to ensure that safety is given consideration.

On glass, we do have high collection rates for glass generally. When I was young, I would have brought back bottles to pubs or to local shops and it was a great source of revenue. There is a very high collection rate and a very high recycling rate for glass given that we have a good infrastructure of deposit banks across the country. A refund model is something that could be considered and it might add to that but the recycling rates are very good. It is typically not so good for plastic because the facilities are not there and that is why the scheme is being introduced.