Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

All Departments are required to prepare resource-efficiency action plans. In the area of waste, these plans reflect wider changes implemented by previous Governments in terms of how businesses and households manage their waste. Departments must increase the number of facilities for recycling and composting and discontinue the use of single-use plastics throughout the organisation.

Households have been separating out their recyclables and compostable waste for some time but the reality is that there is no clarity on where this waste goes exactly. We are aware that some local authorities across the country still operate an any-bag, any-bin policy and that some private operators incinerate all waste collected from the black bin, the blue bin, or even the brown bin. Practices across the public and private sectors are in direct conflict with the Government's current roadmap for waste planning and management, limited as that plan is. There are firm commitments to the circular economy, yet the mass production of unnecessary plastics by very profitable companies continues. There is no coherent and measured strategy to deal with planned obsolescence. Does the Taoiseach know where his Department's compostable waste goes? If not, he is not alone because Ireland simply does not have the industrial composting facilities needed to meet waste-separation needs.

What accountability mechanism has the Taoiseach put in place to ensure the programme for Government commitment to a new national waste action plan comprehensively addresses the existing shortfalls in the existing strategies?

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