Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Cinnte go bhfuil an Comhaontas Glas fíor-shásta tacaíocht a thabhairt don Bhille seo. I welcome this Bill and warmly commend Deputy Sherlock for bringing it before the House. The Green Party will, of course, be wholeheartedly supporting it.

As many Members have said, the issue of microbead and micro-plastic pollution was first raised in the Oireachtas by my Green Party colleague, Senator Grace O'Sullivan, in the Seanad last November . The Senator brought before the Seanad a Bill which Deputy Sherlock's Labour colleagues in the Seanad were vocal in supporting, along with Sinn Féin and many Independents, including Senator O'Sullivan's colleagues in the Civil Engagement Group. Regrettably, however, the Government and Fianna Fáil, instead of progressing the Bill and looking to amend it at a later Stage, declined to give the Bill a Second Reading.

I appreciate that the Minister has since taken steps on this issue, including having facilitated an extensive public consultation process and committed to notify the EU Commission and World Trade Organization formally of the State's intention to introduce a ban. These are positive steps, and this Bill is another positive step and one which the Green Party believes should be fully supported by this House.

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The Labour Party’s Bill seeks to do many of the same things the Green Party's Bill sought to do. I welcome its introduction in this House and hope that it will see better fortune than our Bill did last November. The attention, focus and conversation which Senator Grace O’Sullivan started in her capacity as a legislator should not be underestimated and it clearly was an effective catalyst.

It has always been the Green Party’s view that to make long-term successful inroads in a multifaceted approach to protecting the environment, it requires the active support of the majority of political parties and the same applies globally. No one political party has ownership of environmental issues, but for as long as that is the perception, the environment and, ultimately, the people will lose. That is why we must work together and this Bill presents an opportunity to do so.

However, I would like to see provisions in this Bill for the monitoring of microbeads and micro-plastics by the Environmental Protection Agency, and for a differentiation to be drawn between microbeads and micro-plastics. Both of these provisions were present in Senator Grace O’Sullivan’s Bill and their inclusion would greatly strengthen Deputy Sherlock’s Bill. Deputy Eamon Ryan and I intend to bring forward amendments to that effect on Committee Stage.

The arguments for the ban on microbeads have been outlined by Senator Grace O’Sullivan in the Seanad, and again by Deputy Sherlock and others today in this House, so I need not restate them. The central purpose of the Green Party moving its Bill in the Seanad, and the value of this conversation around microbeads and micro-plastics in the first place, was to highlight the much larger issue of plastic marine litter in general. Microbeads are just the tip of the iceberg.

Some 150 million tonnes of plastics have accumulated in the world’s oceans and we continue to add up to 12 million tonnes every year. Not alone is this litter causing serious damage to our fish and other marine life but there are also considerable economic losses in tourism and fishing which the European Commission has said is estimated to cost up to €630 million a year for coastal and beach cleaning. This Bill is about the health of our seas. The banning of microbeads and micro-plastics is a first important and beneficial step, but we must be aware of the many other challenges facing us if we are to clean up our seas and sea beds.

As an island country it is essential that we are a leading voice in Europe and on the world stage in calling for co-operation and coherent action in tackling marine litter. This is not any one country’s responsibility, but rather it is every country’s responsibility. I call on the Government to make our voice heard loudly and clearly. I would urge every Member of this House to support the Bill, and take the first practical step in moving this Bill to the next Stage in order to tackle an aspect of one of the biggest issues facing our seas. With the support of this House the process of beginning to tackle this problem becomes realistic and achievable.

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