Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

Implementation of the EU Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment has required close co-operation between all stakeholders including producers, retailers and both central and local government. The process began with the establishment of a task force representative of all relevant sectors, including producers and retailers, in February 2003 to draw up proposals for implementing the directive. Following the publication of the task force report in 2004, an extensive public consultation process took place.

While the scheme is producer-funded, the directive allows producers to show the cost of recovering and recycling historic waste which was put on the market before 13 August 2005. These costs are referred to as environmental management costs, EMCs, and were the subject of detailed discussions between the representatives of producers and retailers, which my Department helped to facilitate. I also met both groups separately before finalising the regulations. The majority view among the industry and the independent retail sector, for reasons of fuller transparency and greater accountability, favoured a system of visible EMCs in the manner which has been provided for under the regulations.

The advantages of visible EMCs include the provision of maximum transparency, maximum information for consumers and the facilitation of easier implementation of the scheme. Visible EMCs also ensure traceability and greater financial accountability, allow all companies, large and small, to know precisely the cost of the structures involved, and by informing the public in an open way, ensure that profiteering is prevented.

The EMCs are validated by an independent body, the WEEE Register Society Limited, which has an independent committee of management. EMCs are used to fund the operations of the two recycling schemes set up by the industry which are required to operate on a not-for-profit basis and will be subject to periodic review.

EMCs are not imposed by or remitted to the Government. The EMC can only be used to pay for the collection, treatment and recycling of electrical waste. The design of the new system assures the public that any moneys collected by producers for recycling are assigned for recycling activity and are not diverted elsewhere. It also ensures traceability and financial accountability and, by informing the public in an open way, ensures that profiteering is prevented.

Now that the system has been in operation for two months, I have again met the representatives of producers and retailers, as well as the WEEE Register Society and discussed a number of areas in which it could be improved. While the WEEE Register Society will carry out a comprehensive review of all EMC levels after six months to ensure that they are not any higher than is necessary to fund the scheme, it has agreed to my request that it look immediately at the levels which apply to low cost goods. I expect more realistic levels for these goods will be set by the end of this month.

I have also discussed with all parties the need for greater consistency and simplicity in the way in which the EMCs are set out in media advertisements and shelf displays. A consensus is emerging on this issue which I hope shortly to see adopted as best practice by the industry. My Department is drawing up a guidance note to assist this process.

These are the real benefits of this new system for consumers and the environment. Householders can now have their old appliances disposed of safely, responsibly and free of charge. Waste collected under the scheme will be recycled. It cannot go to landfill. Unregulated collection of electrical and electronic waste which contributed to the wanton dumping of old washing machines, fridges and cookers and other unsightly and dangerous waste in fields and back roads, which in turn despoiled our natural environment, will be resolved by the cradle to the grave recycling system which has now been put in place.

The gain to the environment will be very significant. We should also take pride in the fact that Ireland is one of only a small number of EU member states to have implemented the directive fully by the due date.

A final point may be of help to Deputy O'Dowd. I have met the WEEE Register Society Limited again recently to discuss the scheme and will continue to do so. There are a number of small issues with it that will require continual consultation.

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