Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response on the perverse situation in respect of PET. I want to tease out his response a little. We talk about recycling but what we do in Ireland is collect and separate. We have a small recycling capacity. Shabra Plastics is an example of that in the PET area. Because of the incentives within the market, the subsidies on the one hand and the taxes elsewhere, there is a risk that the small industry in existence will be uncompetitive and will struggle to be sustained. Those levers within the market are disadvantages to companies. There are subsidies for export and virgin plastic taxes elsewhere, which we can introduce but have decided not to on the basis that we want to move as a part of the European Union as a whole. The company in question is affected every working day by the implementation of levies elsewhere. Does the Minister of State see the perfect storm at play here in respect of the industry as it exists? I wish to ask the Minister of State about those two specific measures, the subsidies for export and the virgin plastic taxes elsewhere. How does the Minister of State intend to develop an industry here when the existing industry is struggling because of those measures? Somewhere along the line, the Government is going to have to address these issues or there will be no industry. It will be always more profitable to send products somewhere else, with a massive carbon footprint, to the detriment of local economies in Ireland and certainly to the detriment of the environment. Why do we not address those market anomalies now?

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