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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 55, 59 and 60 together.

Since the deposit-return scheme, DRS, went live on 1 February, more than 100 million containers have been returned and €18 million has been refunded to consumers in deposits. Daily return rates are growing all the time, regularly exceeding 2 million containers. It reached 3 million on Sunday.

A four-month transition period is in place to allow for the selling-off of existing non-DRS stock and also to focus on supporting consumers and retailers through the critical set-up period. As with any new scheme of this scale and complexity, there have been some teething issues, but I am satisfied that Re-turn is taking the right actions to sort these out.

I am very encouraged by the early engagement rates. While Re-turn is providing periodic data to me, it is important not to draw final conclusions prematurely. In reality, a full 12 months of operation will be needed to make that first meaningful assessment. Such a period is essential for the scheme to mature, ensuring that the metrics we eventually use and report to the EU are both accurate and reliable.

At present, there are almost 2,700 retail return points, about 90% of which are reverse-vending machines, with the rest being manual. The scheme also allows for non-retail operators, such as local authorities, to provide take-back facilities, complementing the collection infrastructure provided by retailers. My Department and Re-turn continue to engage with the sector and already five local authorities have approached me about installing reverse-vending machines at civic amenity sites as part of the next phase of roll-out.

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