Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

I welcome the recycling figures, which are impressive and good. There is scope to do better in the future. If we have an over-capacity of landfill facilities and a planned over-capacity of incineration facilities, does the Minister agree that it will be difficult to convince anybody to go down the expensive route of recycling, rather than to put waste materials in landfills or to give such materials to the operators of incinerators, whose fires are hungry and require regular feeding? There will be an incentive to bring waste products to incinerators. According to the question tabled by my colleague, Deputy Pattison, the Minister asserted recently that "the need for incineration has been over-estimated". Will the Minister comment on that? Is he suggesting that he will instruct the people who are carrying out the reviews to propose alternatives to municipal incineration? Was that his intention when he made the comments to which I referred? Does he believe that too many incinerators have been provided for in the regional development plans? Does he agree that recycling could be more expensive than landfill and incineration facilities if the full cost is charged for such facilities? As well as making it easier, we must also make it cheaper for people to recycle.

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