Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will describe a couple of measures to reduce waste next year. Around our country, there are historic landfill sites, including, for example, the illegal site at Kerdiffstown in County Kildare. There is €26 million in my budget for landfill remediation. Fly-tipping is still going on, albeit much less than before. One still sees mattresses and things dumped in our beautiful countryside. Some €11 million has been allocated to local authorities for waste enforcement because enforcement is the only thing that works with somebody who is behaving that way.

Everyone will remember that, during lockdown, pubs, restaurants and cafes were closed, and people were picnicking and drinking outdoors. In the mornings, the local tidy towns organisations would collect, with dismay, large quantities of plastic bottles and cans, the supply of which seemed to be endless. Next year, I will introduce a deposit refund scheme so that sort of waste will be worth money. It will not be left in a field anymore because each piece of litter will be worth approximately 20 cent. Customers can bring their waste to their local shop and get the money back. That is something we did in the past and which is done in other countries already. We will reintroduce that scheme and I fully expect it to succeed.

The landfill remediation, waste enforcement penalties and the deposit refund scheme will have dramatic effects on the appearance of the Irish countryside. I commend the budget to the House.

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