Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Sean Sherlock for introducing this Bill and raising this extremely important issue. I also thank other Members who have raised the issue, including Senator Grace O'Sullivan. I only became aware of the problems caused by micro-plastics when I watched the film "Trashed" by Jeremy Irons. I was shocked by the film, which I screened for Deputies and Senators in the House several years ago. It covered the general issue of trash and specifically highlighted the terrifying consequences of dumping rubbish, particularly plastics which break down into micro-plastics, in the oceans.

While public awareness of this issue is growing, it is probably not great enough. It is important, therefore, that the House debates the issue, sounds the alarm about it and gets across the message that our oceans are vital for human existence and survival. Approximately 70% of the oxygen we breathe is produced by marine plants, 97% of the earth's water supply is contained in the ocean and 30% of the CO2 emissions produced by humans are absorbed by the oceans. Coastal ecosystems store ten times more carbon than terrestrial forests and the degradation of marine ecosystems accounts for 19% of carbon emissions from global deforestation. Deforestation, in turn, accounts for between 20% and 25% of the impacts of global warming. In poisoning and polluting the oceans, we are destroying the means to sustain human existence.

Against this background, the extent of the damage that has been done is extraordinary. In 2010, some 215 million metric tonnes of plastics found their way into the sea. In 2007, a total of 2.12 billion tonnes of waste was dumped into the planet's oceans. As a result of pollution, a 5,000 sq. m. area in the Gulf of Mexico is almost completely devoid of life and nitrification has completely destroyed the oxygen in the water in 405 similar dead zones in the world's oceans. Plastics, including micro-plastics, make the largest contribution to this problem. We must take urgent action to address these terrifying developments.

I welcome the Bill and the call for Ireland to take unilateral action. We should take the lead, rather than waiting around for the European Union to get its act together. We will see whether the confidence the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney, expressed in the EU and Commissioner Vella is justified but we should not wait around to find out.

It is important to emphasise, as previous speakers have noted, that microbeads contained in cosmetics account for a very small part of the problem. While their small size means they can get through filters and get into and poison animal and marine life in a particularly pernicious way, studies suggest they are a very small part of the problem. One Norwegian study, for example, showed that of 8,000 tonnes of micro-plastics, as opposed to microbeads alone, produced annually in Norway, half of which end up in the oceans, microbeads accounted for only 0.1%, whereas the tyre industry accounted for 55%, with various other activities, including washing textiles, marine leisure and construction, accounting for the remainder.

The Bill would take an important step but there is a much wider problem that must be addressed as a matter of urgency. This must not be used as an excuse for not passing this legislation, however. The argument that more studies are needed or that we must learn more about the issue, of which there was a hint in the Minister's contribution, is not acceptable as it would only delay action in this area. Let us move on those issues on which we can move and do so as urgently as possible.

We need to look at and address the wider problem and face down any resistance from corporate interests to legislation and bans on these materials or other measures that need to be taken to prevent the pollution of water sources and oceans by these products, whatever their source.

I welcome the Bill and hope the Government will agree to its passage and not delay on it. If the Minister is serious about legislation to cover the wider problem, it has to be brought forward as a matter of urgency. It will also have to be comprehensive in dealing with the multiplicity of sources of rubbish, trash, pollutants, micro-plastics and all the rest from all sorts of industry. It is being dumped into rivers and filtering through the soil, ultimately ending up in the oceans and killing marine life and, as a consequence, potentially killing something that helps to sustain human existence on the planet. I hope these issues can be further highlighted in today's debate.

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