Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak about this important issue again. I have raised it previously in recent months. Despite my repeated efforts to clear up this matter by means of written parliamentary questions, some serious questions still remain unanswered. Since I last highlighted this issue on the floor of the Dáil, both of the representative bodies that had been engaged in the negotiations with the Department have pulled out of those negotiations.

At the outset, I want to clear up some of the misinformation that is out there. It has been suggested that this proposal has been made on foot of an EU directive. That is simply not true because it is the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government's own idea. The Minister, Deputy Kelly, and some of his Cabinet colleagues, along with officials from the Department, have said that illegal dumping has reached epidemic proportions, but the Environmental Protection Agency has said that the figures are negligible. In 2013, the CSO said that 96% of tyres sold in this country could be accounted for.

Nobody condones the illegal dumping of tyres, just as nobody condones anything that would go against the environment. The representative bodies will acknowledge that the existing scheme needs improvement. I suggest that this seems to stem from a lack of enforcement of the current legislation. There is no sanction in place for non-compliance.

Under the new self-compliance scheme, tyre wholesalers and retailers are required to dispose of waste tyres. The current cost of that, approximately €1, is not being passed on to the consumer. Under the new full producer responsibility initiative scheme, the Repak and WEEE group will be appointed to act as monopoly collectors and recyclers for the entire tyre industry across the board.

This will cost in the region of €3 per car, a trebling of the cost, and up to €15 per truck or €20 for an agrityre. The proposed scheme will fuel evasion and there will be a surge in black market activity. It will send all buyers of truck and tractor tyres across the Border to Northern Ireland and the UK where they can save themselves in the region of €100 for a single set of new tyres. It will give external sellers a huge unfair advantage over domestic sellers.

I will ask a couple of direct questions. The Minister, Deputy Kelly, claims he is formalising an existing charge with a new tyre levy but would he agree that the existing waste tyre disposal charge is only 80 cent plus VAT, as confirmed by Repak in a presentation to members of the Fine Gael parliamentary party? The Minister continuously refers to tyre stockpiles across the country but, according to the EPA figures, the five largest stockpiles since 2007 were on the sites of licensed waste collectors. Will he acknowledge that fact?

The entire tyre industry has withdrawn from this process. Does this not tell the Minister and his Department that the proposed scheme is seriously flawed? Is it not time to bring the dealers and their representative bodies back for meaningful talks? Will the Minister acknowledge the figures produced by the independent tyre wholesalers and retailers association that as many as 1,000 jobs could be lost across the country if he insists on bulldozing through the flawed scheme?

Would the Minister agree that the process of appointing Repak to administer this scheme was flawed as it did not go out to public tender, as it should have? Is he aware that senior figures have recently been appointed to Repak who had previously been involved in negotiations representing part of the tyre industry?

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