Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and am glad he finds the work I did to be of some use, but I will repeat what I said. We need to see actual actions, for example, banning best before dates being put on food products and only relying on the use by dates, which is the statutory requirement. In large retail stores, 20% of space could be provided for people who bring their own containers. While I accept that establishing the principles is important, we need to go beyond that and see pragmatic actions coming from the strategy instead of relying on broad-based principles.

I tried to submit questions to other Ministries to learn how they were adopting the circular economy concept. Despite the whole-of-government approach, they rejected taking the questions. They did not even have the courtesy to offer replies.

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