Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and commend him on the work he does. Last week we heard from the local enterprise offices, LEOs, and Enterprise Ireland that in their view sustainability is the key to long-term competitiveness. In my view, the circular economy is the key to cracking it. I worry that we are going backwards on all of the big targets being set in this sphere. Our recycling rates have stagnated, our reuse rates are the second-lowest in Europe, our waste volumes are all going in the wrong direction in respect of food, packaging, fast fashion, building and waste. The problem we face now is that we have the high-level strategies with some good examples of individual initiatives but the piece in between, the concrete tools that would change behaviour, are too weak.

I have not had the chance to read the Department's work on green procurement but the EPA reported last year that only 17% of procurement contracts have green criteria. The Department should be saying this will increase to 50% and that people should be accountable. In my experience, when I was trying to do the same as the Minister of State, a procurement office would say that if no one comes to it looking for procurement with green criteria it does not do it. It was falling between two stools. It is very important that the Department influence green procurement, which probably drives close to €20 billion or more. This could be done with the criteria if they really had teeth. This has to be a whole-of-government decision and not a decision in one corner of Government that then shouts across at others hoping they will do something.

We need to bring the circular economy, along with biodiversity, into the climate action plan. It was interesting that when the citizens' assembly reported it recommended to the Oireachtas that these wider environmental challenges which are embraced by the circular economy, including material use and repair, should be embraced in the climate approach. In other words, the Taoiseach should hold people to account and every Department should be accountable, with targets set that have some obligation on respective Ministers to report. It is a must if we are to get this to move along.

I am interested to see what other tools the Department can develop. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage came before another committee to discuss whether we have design to minimise embodied carbon, maximise the recovery of waste and see good intelligent design for recovery. The Department did not see this as its job. It was waiting for someone in Europe to tell it what to do. This struck me as a real problem. We all know that 80% of environmental damage is baked in at design stage. If we do not tackle it at the planning and design stage upstream on the construction sector, and if the architects and procurers are not setting these standards, it will not come out at the other end of the pipe. Many building sites throw everything into the one skip where recovery is not possible. What was also striking last week was that Enterprise Ireland, having said that sustainability was the key, indicated low take-up in its programmes for green energy.

We need to create sectoral compacts. I know the Department will produce targets. Targets are one thing. We have targets for recycling and we are not improving. I do not know whether we have a target for reuse but we are the second worst in Europe. Targets are one thing but it is about trying to force the players in a sector, for instance, everyone from the primary producers to the consumers in the food sector. In France one quarter of supermarket produce has to be packaging free. There are many things that could be done at different points on the supply chain if we could get to the point where there was an agreed compact, whereby all of the players in the food sector or the construction sector started to sign up to a compact that would be overseen. We have seen the success of Business in the Community and its energy and climate commitments. Momentum is building among the leaders but it is not wide enough.

My contribution has been more by way of comments than questions. We need to dig this into the weft and weave of sectors. It is very superficial, with high-level targets and admiration for a few individual initiatives, but we do not have the real momentum for change. This has not yet caught on.