Mr. John Chave:

Dr. Lynch says the industry is self-surveying, but many non-governmental organisations are very concerned about this issue and have had our industry under their spotlight for a very long time and no one has questioned that the phase-out has happened. People might say it was an industry survey, etc. but no one has come up with any reasonable evidence to show that we have not done it.

I would like to respond to the second point which was important. I sometimes worry a little about the kind of legislation there is in place in Ireland. Some think that because Ireland has legislated for cosmetics, it has dealt with microplastics. I suggest it has not even begun to deal with microplastics by legislating for cosmetics. This problem is much bigger than the cosmetics and personal care industry which is an extremely small part of it and getting smaller. To go back to a previous question, ours is the only industry that has taken voluntary action in this space. I do not know of any other that has done so. The broader question of how industry works to address big issues such as plastic marine litter will need to be addressed, regardless of whether this legislation goes ahead. That is a much bigger project. I do not mean to cast aspersions on what the committee is doing, which I understand.