Mr. Kevin Swift:

Mr. McLaughlin made the point at the outset that the local government sector, in March of this year, made a national waste management plan for a circular economy. This is the first time the sector has collectively made one plan for the country, following on from two cycles of regional plans. At the centre of the plan, we are responding to the challenge from central government around consumption, reuse, repair and contamination. The plan contains a range of targets which I will give a sense of to the committee. We are looking at significant reductions in residual waste or general waste, so this is about prevention. We see the circular economy as being a vehicle for preventing waste, because it is all about keeping materials in use for longer. It is really circularity in action. To facilitate this circularity, we set a target of 20 kg per person, over the lifetime of the plan, for re-use of materials. We have committed to setting out a roadmap for repair under the lifetime of the plan. In addition, we have set targets for contamination in the recycling bin, so that materials that end up there have a good chance of having a circular future because of the quality of materials that end up there. We have many targets in our new plan, in addition to the European targets.

We have also recognised that accelerating the transition to a more circular economy will require investment. Mr. McLaughlin mentioned a figure of €40 million, which is contained in our plan. That is spread over four key areas. The first is communication. We need to communicate better with customers, consumers and businesses. The second is engagement. We need to engage directly with users and businesses on circular potential in the circular economy. The third area is enhanced regulation to further the aims of the circular economy. The last key area is investment in infrastructure. In the local government sector, we want to be able to facilitate reuse and repair at the network of civic amenity sites we have around the country, but this will require investment. The Deputy asked where the investment will come from. The local government sector is already investing hugely in waste-related services, in excess of €250,000 annually. In our plan points we will be looking for assistance from central government to try to move this dial across our network of civic amenity sites.

We believe that we have set out a strong framework for accelerating the transition to a circular economy, but it is built on the notion of collaboration between all key partners and stakeholders to achieve those outcomes.