Mr. Pat Macken:

I agree absolutely. It is interesting when we are in negotiations to listen to the problems other member states have. Some of the eastern European states that recently acceded to the European Union have very high landfill rates, similar to what we had 20 years ago, and it is a question of them trying to come up to what is required. It was a long road for us in that we had to put the necessary infrastructure in place and we had to have awareness campaigns, but one cannot have such campaigns unless there is progress on the ground. Through the environment fund, landfill levies and the plastic bag levy, we were able to provide recycling centres around the country which enable the producers of responsibility schemes such as Repak to have very high recycling rates. We have high recycling rates for packaging, about 70%, and level of WEEE recycling is more than twice the EU target. With good awareness levels allied to institutional changes, infrastructure provision and development, one can move along and also create many jobs in the process. There will be an opportunity for accession countries to create jobs in this area also. Often low-skilled jobs in labour-intensive sectors such as recycling can be beneficial.

The Deputy referred to moving to the next level. We established a market development programme because we were reaching very high recycling levels. It was aimed at trying to achieve added value for recovered waste resources and ensuring it would not all be shipped to the Far East and that processing would be undertaken here. One of the products on which we concentrated was compost, for which we set a national standard in order that it would do what it said on the tin. Farmers can have confidence in it and know that if it is used on their land, it complies with animal by-product regulations, veterinary regulations and so on. We reach a certain level and to get above it one has to invest again in such a process.