Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The UK Government has just announced that it will introduce a deposit refund scheme for glass and plastic bottles and aluminium cans. We are working at the joint committee on progressing the Waste Reduction Bill, which we presented last July and which reached Second Stage at that time. It is slowly coming to its end and I am confident we will have the numbers in the House to support a Committee Stage debate. However, that will require a change in policy on the part of the Government and an end to opposition to the measure by Fine Gael and the Independent Ministers. I expect that we will have to make a call on this in the coming weeks. Will the Government block the legislation or will it provide the necessary money message to allow us to progress to Committee Stage, at which point the Bill may have to be amended? We are on the right track, it is the right policy and we have the right legislation. It is doable and legal and it goes where Europe is going. Every indicator says this is the right thing to do. Why is Fine Gael blocking it and why is it setting us on a course where it charges for green bins and is happy to burn waste or ship it off to China? Will the Government change course and its opposition to the legislation and permit Committee Stage to take place by sending the money message?

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