Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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The circularity gap report that is coming out this summer will cover it. There is also the durability of products, the information given to consumers which in the future will show durability ratings for products listed on a very simple scale of a,b,c,d,e,f,g, showing how long it is expected that a product will last and what its lifetime is so that consumers can make informed decisions. For example, when they are buying household equipment, beyond looking at the brand name, they can tell whether a product is going to be longlasting. There are also provisions under the EU right to repair, guaranteeing that people have access to repair manuals and spare parts going into the future which will help keep products in use. The Deputy is right, it should not all be about waste and levies but waste and levies are the low-hanging fruit, the first thing that can be gone after.

I mentioned in my opening statement that our circularity rate is below 2%. According to Eurostat we have the second lowest rate in Europe so we have a distance to go. What the Circular Economy Act says is that we will be above average by 2030. In order to get there we have to analyse where we are falling down and what are the easiest things to do first. The largest area that we can improve on is construction and demolition waste. The EPA has recently issued these determinations on end of waste which will greatly improve the ability of builders to reuse waste products, not only from their own sites but from neighbouring sites. They will be able to reuse soil and stone and those types of things rather than having to quarry for aggregates and then having to landfill their demolition products. This massively reduces the number of truck movements because when one has a pile of pebbles they do not have to go and landfill it in the country and then buy more aggregates from somebody else. Clearly this is something that builders want themselves as the current system is costing them a lot of money. I know the Deputy regularly proposes that we have a co-operative or sectoral compact approach to this. It is actually in the interests of the organisations in the industry-----