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

Deputy O'Sullivan suggested that the local authorities should have the most accessible machines and that is a very good suggestion. I will go back to the local authorities on that. He asked about credit being applied to people's phones. Local authority civic amenity sites do not handle very small quantities of cash, such as 15 cent. They are really looking at what the solution is for dealing with cash. Credit to a phone may be the answer. There is a difficulty with transaction charges on very small amounts of money, which is why electronic transactions are not usually used. The Deputy also suggested flagging on an app when the machines are out of order and this is a good suggestion. If that data is available, I will ask Re-turn to do that.

Deputy Farrell asked about the height of machines. This is set at 1.2 m. There was extensive consultation with the National Disability Authority before the Re-turn scheme went live. A forum of people representing those with disabilities and those with lived experience with disability is sitting this month to see how the scheme is working in practice and if any changes are needed. Retailers should be selling off their old stock at a discount before the end of the month-----

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