Mr. Liam Moloney:

That is quite a lot of questions. I will start with the last one, which was about our accounts. Our full set of accounts is available on our website, farmplastics.ie, if Deputy Collins wants to see them. That deals with that question.

With regard to the levy and the farmer being charged twice, we have gone with a funding model that sees the producer in the first instance making up the bulk of the income, through the producer contribution. We also have a weight-based collection charge for farmers. We have gone with this model because it encourages farmers to bring in cleaner plastic to the collection points. We could charge for everything through the producer contribution, in which case the producer contribution would increase, so there would be no difference to the farmer. This particular funding model encourages the farmer to take out at least large pieces of contamination from the plastic. We have seen quite an improvement in the quality of plastic in recent years because of that.

We have had a compliance officer working with us for the past nine or ten years. He has two main roles with the company. One is to ensure our producer members get their returns in on time and we get the required funds from them. He also works with the local authorities to ensure any cases of illegal supply of farm plastic products – those without the levy – are dealt with. He has a third role as well, which is working with our contractors to make sure they are running their bring centres and yards to a high standard.

Our contractors are currently moving material from their yards in advance of the new season, which will be starting very shortly. From time to time, there can be pressures in those yards. If there are pressures in a yard, we work with the contractor to make sure the yard is brought back under control. Our contractors work in a very co-operative way with the county councils, as we do all the time. There is a very good relationship with the county councils.

As Deputy Collins will see from our accounts last year, our turnover was just a little over €6 million. That was the cost of running the scheme, so that is what we spent last year. We work towards having a reserve of in the region of €3 million in place at any given time. Having said that, for the last number of years, because we have been collecting record volumes of material at a time when recycling costs were high, our reserve has become a little depleted, but we have taken measures to deal with that.

If I have missed some of Deputy Collins's questions, he might just remind me.