Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

The answer to most of the Deputy's rhetorical questions is "No". There is a degree of extraordinary hypocrisy in the Green Party's stance on this issue. I was pleased last week that, in the course of the debate, Deputy Quinn made it clear that incineration or waste to energy will have to be part of any integrated waste strategy for the future. Recovery and reduction of waste will also have to be part of the strategy. There is no simple one-way solution. Tragically, there is no zero waste solution and we cannot simply legislate waste away.

We must be honest with the public. If we wish to achieve the same high environmental standards as those countries in Europe that are always held up as the exemplars, we must have the same infrastructure as they have. I agree that far too much waste in this country goes into landfill. I wish I was in the same position today as the Deputy's colleague in the Green Party who was the Minister with responsibility for the environment in the last German Government who went to a Council meeting of Environment Ministers and boasted he had passed a ministerial order preventing further waste going to landfill until it had been heat treated.

We must be honest about this issue. Waste goes hand in hand with economic development. If we are to achieve the same levels of high environmental performance and recovery as the countries rightly used by the Deputy and others as exemplars, we must put in place the same type of infrastructure. It is dishonest to suggest there is some simple way of wishing the problem away. There is not.

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