Dr. Tom Ryan:

As to how the EPA will enforce in this area, I remind the committee that the EPA's enforcement role is quite specific in relation to producers as defined under the regulations. The EPA has a great deal of experience in enforcing environmental legislation, including other producer responsibility indicatives such as the waste electrical and electronic equipment recycling, WEEE, for batteries. We will bring that wide breadth of experience to enforcing compliance in this sector. The general approach will involve writing to non-compliant operators, following up with site visits where appropriate and escalating matters up to and including prosecution where appropriate.

With regard to distance sellers and the movement of tyres here from other jurisdictions, in contravention of the regulations from a producer perspective, our enforcement activities will be very much intelligence-led. As a regulator-enforcer we proactively gather information from a wide variety of sources and we act proportionately on the basis of the information. That could include site visits, escalating up to prosecution where appropriate.