Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 5: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he has satisfied himself that manufacturers or distributors are making an adequate financial contribution to the recycling of consumer packaging, in view of the fact that domestic waste charges continue to rise. [36759/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland has enjoyed considerable success in recent years in meeting targets for the recovery and recycling of packaging waste. Data from the Environmental Protection Agency show that we met the 25% target for 2001 set under the packaging waste directive and that we are on course to meet the 50% recovery target for 2005. The comparable figure for 1998 was approximately 14%. The practical implementation of the packaging directive in Ireland is organised mainly through a collective industry-based compliance scheme operated by Repak Limited, which is working successfully. Under this scheme, Repak subsidises the collection and recycling of both commercial and domestic packaging waste. There has also been a significant acceleration in our recycling performance in other waste streams, such as electrical and electronic equipment, construction and demolition waste. This is being made possible by the rolling out of the necessary infrastructure in terms of recycling facilities. In recent years we have doubled the number of bring banks and civic amenity sites.

Building on our success in the area of packaging waste recycling, I established the national strategy group on packaging waste recycling in October 2004, involving the key public and private stakeholders such as Repak, IBEC, producers, waste collectors, reprocessors, local authorities and my Department. The group is mandated to develop a strategy for achieving the 2011 targets under an amended packaging waste directive, which will require an overall recovery rate of 60%.

I am aware that the level of subsidy for waste collection services has been raised as an issue by certain local authorities in the context of the revision of their waste management plans. The strategy group is the appropriate forum in which to find consensus between all of the stakeholders on the best way to address all of the issues, including the appropriate levels of financial support from producers for the recovery and recycling activities of the local authorities. The partnership approach is the appropriate way to make further progress in this area.

Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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The Minister seems to claim that everything is fine. It reminds me of Saddam Hussein claiming to be still the president of Iraq. Ireland is at the bottom of the league when compared with other countries in Europe. One need look no further than the European Environment Agency's report which was launched today. The report suggests that of the 32 countries surveyed, Ireland gets the D minus in the environment league.

At the moment, manufactures and distributors contribute to recycling through Repak, which recycles packaging waste. However, Repak isonly paying for the crumbs of recycling. In Dún Laoghaire, householders that get——

Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Does the Deputy have a question?

Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I am leading up to it, if I could be so bold. In Dún Laoghaire, householders now have the green bin, but they are paying for the privilege. If they want the green bin, they pay €100 per annum for it. The cost of recycling the content of these bins is €6 million per annum, yet Repak only pays €250,000. Not everything in the green bin is recyclable, but surely Repak or the manufacturers and distributors should make a far greater contribution to recycling——

Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Has the Deputy a question?

Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I was in the middle of the question.

Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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The Deputy has gone over his allotted time.

Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I will be brief. Surely the householders should not pay the vast bulk of the financial contribution to recycling. Can we ask Repak to pay more? If Repak is not prepared to pay more, can the manufacturers and distributors pay their fair share of the recycling burden?

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Between 2000 and 2005, Repak spent €66 million on direct recycling costs. In that period, Ireland has consistently achieved the EU packaging waste recycling targets. The Deputy was very selective in his reference to the EU and to the EPA. If I was sitting over there, I would probably be equally selective, so I will not fault him for that. Repak expenditure on direct recycling activity has amounted to approximately €12.4 million. From time to time it is necessary to review the balance between the different parties in the amounts they recycle. This has worked very well as a partnership arrangement and it will be examined by the strategy group. We have seen success out of partnership arrangements elsewhere. I referred to the electrical and electronic waste and the initial figures for these are quite astonishing. When I get final figures, I will make them available to the House.

We are making good progress in this area. The partnership approach is working and the specific point raised by the Deputy should be discussed by the strategy group.

Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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If the mathematics are done on this, it is apparent that the householder is paying €80 to €100 per annum and that Repak pays around 5% of that. That seems like a disproportionate balance in favour of the manufacturing industries. It is very difficult for householders to deal with the amount of waste but they have little choice in it. Can the Minister look at this as a matter of urgency? Can he look at the significant increases in waste charges to private households? Dublin City Council waste charges just went up by 10% last night and something similar could happen at Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. Can the Minister come up with some suggestions on this issue?

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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A total of 482,000 tonnes were handled by packaging waste over the period mentioned. The Deputy is making a very interesting point. When we looked at the electric waste directive, we adopted a different approach by using visible fees. The issue raised by the Deputy will have to be discussed by the strategy group.