Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak to this Bill. When we talk about a circular economy, the first part I read about was CCTV and so forth, which I welcome. There is a major problem with dumping in many areas. More communities need to be encouraged and get involved. General data protection regulation and all this craic that is going on, whereby someone can have a person on video but cannot use it is absolutely horrendous. We must move on from it and resolve that issue.

We talk about a circular economy. I looked at it in the context some of the cups a person can get. If he or she goes in somewhere for a cup of tea without one, he or she pays more. What about the kettle that boiled the water? We design electric kettles at the moment that are throwaway. People buy a kettle in the shop, it works for a few months and the next thing, they bring it away and recycle it. That is the make-up of it. At one time, years ago, there was an element that could be screwed out and replaced and the electric kettle always worked.

It was pretty ordinary stuff. It had no great high technology but it did the job.

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