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

I will explain the financial structure of the company, very briefly. Yes, I expect that eventually, when the scheme is mature, it will only be returning 92% of cans and bottles, that is, 8% where a deposit is paid and not returned. The money from that pays to run the scheme, in co-operation with a payment by the producers that will be of a similar quantity. The amount of money from unclaimed deposits will be similar to the amount of money paid in by producers for each bottle or can they produce and put on the market. At the moment, that amount is 2 cent for a plastic bottle and 1.25 cent for an aluminium can. There is a third source of revenue for Re-Turn, which is the value of the aluminium and the plastic that is collected. What the company did was produced its financial projections, we analysed them with our financial consultants, and it constructed a scheme for a company that pays for itself and which is non-profit. In other words, the amount of money that comes in matches the amount of money that goes out. That is the structure of the company, and this is a well-understood and well-tried and tested company structure like Repak and every other extended producer responsibility scheme.

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