Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. The circular economy has never been more relevant as we deal with the consequences of a war in Ukraine that is giving rise to uncertainty in respect of energy supplies and prices, food supplies, inflation and the cost of living. It has also highlighted the inherent vulnerability of allowing our economies to become dependent on fossil fuels, especially when limited supplies are controlled by a small number of states. In future, consumers and businesses may not be able to rely on complex global supply chains to the extent that we do today, with more countries competing for even scarcer resources.

Deputy Bruton has taken a keen interest in the circular economy. I agree with him that the Circular Economy, Waste Management (Amendment) and Minerals Development (Amendment) Bill 2022 needs to be enacted as soon as possible to help build more resilient communities and economies.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is implementing several initiatives to support the ambitions of the Government. We have policy responsibility for implementation of the ecodesign directive. The proposal for a sustainable products initiative that was recently brought forward by the Commission puts circularity, repairability, availability of replacement parts and product design for durability at the centre of an expanded ambition for product regulations. The ecodesign regulation can significantly complement our national ambition on the circular economy and the Department will work with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and relevant agencies to promote this shared objective.

Separately, the climate toolkit for business launched by the Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and I last year is an online calculator tool that will assist businesses, especially SMEs, in calculating their carbon footprint on the basis of simple metrics they can input in the context of energy, waste, water and travel. The Department is also working with the cement sector and other stakeholders in the context of climate action plans for 2019 and 2021 in order to increase the use of solid recovered fuels, that is, waste in the fuel sector. It is essential that our ambition to reduce non-recyclable waste and our ambition to decarbonise cement production are complementary.

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