Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Labour Party, I support the Private Members' motion and thank the Green Party for putting it before us. It speaks to common sense. The scourge of single use plastics is a blight on our environment and landscape. There is a clear demand now among the people, as articulated by the majority of Members in the House through the motion, and a clear view that we must now move towards the elimination of single use plastics on a practical basis. If we are to give any serious consideration to the IPCC report, which we are all very familiar with at this juncture, failure to take radical and drastic action will have serious consequences for humanity. I am not given to verbosity but when one looks at the stark figures contained in the IPCC report, there is very little time in global historical terms for us to do something radical to potentially turn things around to a more positive vein.

This is a practical motion to which Members have assented. We should not be fooled by the Government's intention to abstain on it or read that as Government assent. It is, as has been said by Deputy Eamon Ryan, a delaying tactic. The money message is a mechanism being used as a very blunt instrument to stunt the progress of Opposition Bills and motions in the House. We demand action on this issue now. If the majority of Members say we want to support the motion, that should, in a democratic process, give rise to action by the Government out of, at a minimum, sheer respect for the democratic process. We need radical action. We are all familiar with the idea of deposit refund schemes and all of us have seen them in operation. They work in many western European countries and are based on pragmatism and common sense. Why can we not move in a direction which seeks to speak to the issue of single use plastics? We all realise as consumers and citizens that if we do not tackle this issue, the scourge of single use plastics, particularly around our coastlines, will get worse. I speak as a sea kayaker. It is something I do as a pastime. There is nothing more beneficial than to be out on the ocean in a boat on one's own steam. It is depressing to see the amount of plastic washed up on beaches with every tide or the plastic that floats at sea when one gets out far enough. As an island nation with a proud maritime history, we need to do something to tackle it and to take leadership on this issue, if not for this generation, for future generations.

I look forward to the intervention of some of the members of the IPCC who will be before the House to address the Joint Committee on Climate Action because it will bring home to us just how stark this problem is. We need to be jolted into action. Sometimes in this House we are in a bit of a bubble and sometimes people outside the House know better what needs to happen in terms of actions. They are demand action on this issue, which is not an insurmountable one. It can be tackled with some co-operation and collaboration.

The motion speaks to a pragmatic approach where we move towards an eventual phasing out of single use plastics. In the meantime, it proposes, as an intervention, the introduction of a deposit refund scheme, as is commonplace in other countries. We also need to consider investing in the establishment of glass bottling plants. Perhaps this has been spoken about already and it has certainly been spoken about previously. The idea that we become producers of glass bottles and further incentivise the constant reuse of materials is common sense. We did this before plastics became omnipresent and there is a demand for it.

There are many worthwhile causes throughout Ireland now. Members of Clean Coasts Ballynamona in east Cork are out every weekend cleaning up beaches and doing a mighty job. What we see in that is people power. It is people and communities coming together across the generations, not radical action. They want to be able to walk on pristine beaches again. They want to ensure that water quality is of a certain standard. It brings me to the issue of banning microplastics, on which I have a Bill that has reached Committee Stage. The relevant committee has analysed the microplastics Bill.

I am waiting for a money message on it too. We cannot have more stalling tactics on these issues. I acknowledge the fact that the Green Party first brought through the microplastics Bill, on which we took up the cudgel, and that we are waiting for the Government to publish its Bill. I know that there is a Bill in gestation, which I welcome, but we want to see it published in order that we can all examine it. If we do not ban microplastics, I do not need to tell Deputies or anybody watching what the consequences of the constant presence of microplastics in marine life are, or what the consequences ultimately will be for humans. One does not have to go too far to witness the insidious damage microplastics and other plastics cause to flora and fauna such as birds.

We have an opportunity to pass a motion in this House, but it will be meaningless as a motion if it is not followed by action. There is a willingness on the part of this House, and every Deputy, to try to bring about radical change in our attitudes to plastics and to try to legislate for changes in human behaviour in a practical way.

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