Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In a previous written response to me back in May, the Minister of State indicated that the data relating to the quantities of PET plastic that are recycled domestically and exported were not collated by his Department. Will he indicate as a first step that this has now changed and that he plans to provide the data? We are having a debate in the abstract if we do not know precisely how big of a problem we are dealing with.

In respect of the levy on virgin plastic, it appears to be a no-brainer in terms of the language the Government uses. Whenever we are talking about ordinary people using coffee cups, plastic bags or whatever, they are all measures that I support. There is never any issue. We never have to carry out years of analysis or wait to see what is happening at a European level. Virgin plastic being imported into Ireland is a source of pollution and therefore it would make eminent sense that there would be a levy on that in order to encourage the use of recycled material.

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