Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

The programme for Government commits to the development of a coherent national waste policy, adhering to the waste hierarchy, which will aim to minimise waste disposal in landfill and maximise recovery. I am prioritising this commitment, as I am anxious to provide early regulatory certainty, in the form of policy and legislation, to ensure that the necessary actions and investments are progressed to achieve those aims.

During the Dáil Second Stage debate on the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill on 14 April 2011, I outlined the guiding principles which will inform the waste policy development process. These principles will serve to ensure that future waste policy will: be designed to minimise the volumes of waste generated and to extract the maximum value from those wastes which arise; be founded on a firm, evidence-based understanding of the many scientific, economic and social issues which are inherent elements of the waste policy discourse; and be designed to facilitate necessary investment in infrastructure, within an appropriately regulated waste market framework.

Our current over-reliance on landfill facilities is unsustainable and the move away from landfill must be accelerated. We must ensure that a range of infrastructure is available to treat the waste we generate in an environmentally appropriate manner. That process of infrastructural diversification must be guided not by a fixation in favour of or against any particular process or technology, but by a policy approach, consistent with the waste hierarchy, which creates the space within which the range of appropriate infrastructure that we need can be brought forward.

I look forward to engaging with parliamentary colleagues and the range of interests in the waste sector in the development of this policy framework. I intend that this work will be completed by the end of this year.

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