James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil supports this Bill but we are disappointed about the length of time it has taken for it to come before the House. There have been repeated attempts in the lifetime of this Dáil to have this legislation enacted, by the Green Party in the first instance, followed by the Labour Party and then Fianna Fáil, all of which were prevented from progressing by the Government. While we support the Bill, it must be stated that it is a curate's egg in that it is a little bit spoiled. Nevertheless, it is before us now. We will take it and run with it.

I hope lessons can be learned from some of the experiences in terms of the missed opportunity of new politics, a matter about which I have spoken on numerous occasions. Unfortunately, we have not managed to engage and progress measures of this nature in respect of which there is cross-party agreement. One of the reasons that was put forward initially in an effort to block legislation in this area was that it allegedly breached EU law. In a recent debate on the smoky coal ban being extended on an all-island basis, the Government similarly made the argument that there might be complications on foot of EU law. The leader of the Fianna Fáil Party, Deputy Micheál Martin, introduced the smoking ban, a point acknowledged by Deputy Sherlock previously. The argument was made that said ban might have been incompatible with EU law. As we have seen from the Brexiteers, EU law is blamed for a lot of things and not always rightly or accurately so. That was the case with the smoking ban. With the resurrection of the Bill before us, and given the new political climate, EU law is often interpreted in different ways, depending on the outcome one wants to find.

The Bill is before the Dáil and Fianna Fáil supports it. I hope that, with all-party support, it will progress quickly. This is an important Bill. It is also a relatively simple measure in many ways in that, technicalities aside, the fundamental principle of it is one with which we are all familiar, namely, to reduce, reuse, recycle. This Bill deals with the reduction aspect in that it seeks to facilitate a reduction in the number of microplastics in materials, in their use in products and in their presence in the environment, particularly the oceans and sewerage systems. This is because, as we know to our detriment, they are non-degradable and remain in the environment far beyond their useful shelf life causing multiple issues.

A recent article in The Irish Timesindicated that the average human, probably and accidentally, consumes 5 g - which is about the size of a credit card - worth of plastic per week through the food they ingest. This could happen where, for example, a fish that has eaten microplastics is consumed by a human. Microplastics move through the food chain. Some pretty scary statistics were provided in the article to which I refer. They were taken from a report compiled by Australia's University of Newcastle, which also mentions that drinking water is a significant source of microplastics. The same is true of seafood. While the average amount of microplastics consumed per person per week is estimated to be approximately 5 g, it could be much higher because microplastics may also be found in secondary sources such as honey, sugar and bread. This is very worrying for multiple reasons.

Some 80% of marine litter is attributed to plastics. It is not all microplastics. Large plastic is bad as well. There is no pass for it. However, today we are seeking to tackle microplastics. As stated, plastic comprises 80% of marine litter and it is a difficult substance to dispose of. Disposal is almost impossible in many ways. Microbeads do not get caught in traditional wastewater systems in the same way as other pollutants. Given their size, nature and texture, they are difficult to pick up and so they pass through into the general drinking water system and other systems. I mentioned fish, shellfish and seafood earlier. A study conducted by NUI Galway found that 73% of 233 deep water fish caught in the north Atlantic Ocean, waters which are familiar to Irish fishermen, had ingested microplastics. That study was conducted in 2018, so it is very recent. If this trend continues unchecked, by 2050 our oceans will contain more plastics than fish. It is pretty damning that we are heading in the direction of our oceans containing more plastics than marine life. Hopefully, this can be addressed. It requires urgent action. This Bill is one of many measures that will be required in this regard.

The other issue that can arise in the context of wastewater is sludge build-up. Microbeads can pool together, congeal and become a sludge, which can then spread to agricultural land and enter the food chain. I recall the many horror stories that were told about what lurked in the sewers in Victorian times in London, New York and many other great cities that have significant underground sewerage systems. There are even more horrific things lurking in our sewers now, including what are known as fatbergs. These are congealed masses of fat, wipes and all kinds of horrendous waste, including plastics, matted together. A fatberg the size of six double-decker buses was recently discovered in the UK. Unfortunately, such discoveries are not unusual.

This legislation is timely and much need. As already stated, Fianna Fáil supports it. I would like to reflect briefly on other measures that could be advanced in parallel with the Bill. Despite the fact that people might say that it is a little too late arriving, we will run with it. There are many other things that could and should be done. The climate action plan was discussed earlier and measures such as microgeneration, which is being touted by Government as an important new initiative to be launched as part of the plan, were highlighted. This development arises, perhaps, out of recent elections and awareness of green issues, in some quarters anyway. Microgeneration is an obvious, much-need, common-sense measure that was first introduced by the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government over ten years ago. Inexplicably, it was cast aside by the Fine Gael-Labour Government when it came to power. Microgeneration requires the installation of a solar panel on a roof. This panel is then plugged into the grid and if more energy than is required is produced, the remainder is returned to the grid. This measure was already in place but discontinued and now the Government is hailing its being brought back as a big announcement. However, we have lost seven or eight years of microgeneration in the interim.

Another example comes to mind. We have talked a lot about renewable energy. The targets in the climate action plan in this regard are welcome. However, the REFIT system for renewable sources excluded offshore wind for the past number of years. Offshore wind has many advantages. It has huge potential for energy generation and it does not have community backlash in terms of the concerns that often arise in the context of onshore wind projects. Understandably, communities have concerns about the proximity of turbines to homes, etc.. Offshore wind is a win for everybody in that sense. It is highly productive in terms of high-volume outputs of energy generation. There are number of resources off our west coast in terms of wind and wave but the REFIT scheme did not include offshore wind. Again, this was a missed opportunity.

On public transport, as a commuter and representative for Kildare north, I am familiar with transport issues. There has been much talk about the Government buying diesel buses. The Taoiseach recently travelled on a hybrid bus, which was followed by approximately 200 diesel buses. There is a serious lack of investment in public transport. I represent a constituency where commuters cannot access parking at the railway station and cannot get a seat on a train. They are also lucky if following their train journey they get a seat on the Luas. There has been a lack of investment in transport over the lifetime of this Government. There was a very good transport strategy on the table when Fianna Fáil was last in office, namely, Transport 21, which had multiple benefits, including interconnectors, metro west, metro north and DART underground. It provided for the type of network one would expect in a modern European city to enable people to travel to work, to study or to visit family, without the trials and tribulations they would be put through by the current system, which is creaking at the seams due to lack of both investment and imagination.

We hope that the Bill can tackle the various issues to which I refer. We raise those issues in the House every day. They are well-known to the Government and I appeal to it to take them on board. We support and welcome the Bill.

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