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

I am very glad to hear that. I was also thrilled to hear the EU proposals this week because they mirror exactly what is in our waste reduction Bill. We were a year ahead of the Commission on the key things, including a ban on single use items like knives, forks and cotton tips, tackling single use cups and containers, the proposal for a 15 cent latte levy on plastic cups to fund the compost bin collection system and a deposit refund scheme which is the only way we could achieve the target of a 90% reduction in single-use plastic bottle recycling by 2025.

It is to be hoped our Bill can go to Committee Stage and be implemented. If there are amendments from the Minister on Committee Stage I would welcome them. It is doable. A Bill is in place and we do not have to wait for the European Parliament to legislate. We can legislate ahead of the curve in this instance. Will the Minister agree to allow the Bill to go to Committee Stage? What do we have to do to achieve that?

Given what we heard earlier about how long it takes to do things, should we not act with a certain urgency? The 2025 target is only seven years away. Given what we heard earlier about how difficult it is to introduce renewable incentives and broadband, we need to be quick. Will the Minister allow the Bill to go to Committee Stage quite quickly, enact it and get on with reform?

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