Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)

I thank Deputy Dowds for raising this issue. The 2010 national litter pollution monitoring system report indicated that glass and plastic containers accounted for 2.86% of the country's national litter composition. Directive 94/62/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on packaging and packaging waste, termed the packaging directive, classifies items such as bottles, drink cans and plastic containers as packaging. The packaging directive is based on the concept of producer responsibility, which effectively requires producers to contribute to the waste management costs of products that they have placed on the market.

Under the directive, Ireland's requirement to achieve a 60% recovery rate for packaging waste in 2011 has already been exceeded and, in 2010, a recovery rate of 74% was achieved. The material-specific recycling targets of 60% for glass, 50% for metals and 22.5% for plastics had also been achieved by 2010, with recycling rates of 78%, 63% and 39%, respectively.

I fully recognise that, despite progress on recycling, we need to continue to improve our performance, which is the Deputy's point. The programme for Government contains a commitment to drive a waste reduction programme as part of the overall policy in the area of sustainable waste management. One of the possible elements of this waste reduction strategy, which is contained in the programme, is the introduction of a levy on packaging. In 2011 my Department commenced a process of consultation with industry, other stakeholders and the public on the possibility of introducing a levy on packaging. The main issues examined in this initial consultation were as follows - the overall views of stakeholders on a packaging levy; how a packaging levy might be operated; international experiences of similar levies; and how a packaging levy might be structured in order to contribute to a reduction in packaging waste.

While submissions acknowledged the achievements Ireland has made in recycling packaging, there is recognition that aspects of the current system need to be reviewed, as is best practice for all long-standing agreements, to ensure that the structure remains as efficient as possible and continues to deliver the best possible results for Ireland in terms of packaging recycling and recovery performance. To this end, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government has determined that the issue should be given further consideration in the context of a review of the producer responsibility initiative model to inform the policy development process which is now under way and is expected to be completed by the end of this year. It may be useful to include the Deputy's views in the review and I would be happy to pass his comments to the Minister.

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