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

I understand that a Department, Ministers and politicians must engage with stakeholders and be informed. However, that is not what we see in the emails released under a freedom of information request. I can give an example. There is an email from 8 May 2018 from the Department to Seamus Clancy of Repak. It states: "As you know the Minister is before the Oireachtas joint committee today to discuss the draft report on the Waste Reduction Bill" and then puts a "quick question" about Repak. On the day it was being debated it was to ask if he could ring that day about what the Minister was going to say. This applied not just to how our Waste Reduction Bill 2017 was handled. It was the iterative in the circle. It was informing and being centrally involved, such as asking for a call in the next half hour and, further to a discussion earlier, asking what should be done in the European Council on the plastics directive.

The problem is that the Department was repeating Repak's line that our Bill was in contravention of European policy when, in fact, it was bang in line with European policy presented by the Commission and subsequently in the directive, despite all the efforts of the Government to weaken it. The Opposition had a correct legislative measure that was perfectly formed to meet what the European Commission was telling governments to do to comply with the new directive. While the Government was trying to water down the directive in Europe, it was saying here that it could not be done because it would upset industry and would not suit it. That is what happened and that is why Members on this side of the House are increasingly angered at how a legislative measure that was absolutely appropriate and bang in line with European legislation was turned down for industry interests and not on the basis of a policy approach formed by the Department.

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