Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of the end-of-waste approval process. I am not sure whether the Taoiseach is familiar with it. It is the application process by which waste is taken by a company, processed and recycled and the company can then on-sell it. It is really the essence of the circular economy. There are 34 live end-of-waste applications with the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, at this time. Unfortunately, there is a huge backlog. Only one decision on an end-of-waste application was made in 2020 and four such decisions were made in 2019. Given there are 34 live applications, it is clear there will be a significant timeframe before they are assessed. The difficulty with that is there are companies waiting for their applications to be assessed. I am aware that a number of companies are considering moving to Northern Ireland because they can get the same application assessed there in six months. It would be a shame to lose those jobs and the opportunities to invest in our circular economy. Is the Taoiseach aware of this issue and will he look into it?

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