Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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52. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to detail the process for the establishment of Re-Turn Ireland; the governance structures of that entity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21899/24]

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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I wish to ask the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to detail the process for the establishment of Re-Turn Ireland, the governance structures of that entity, and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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A national deposit return scheme, DRS, has been introduced to encourage more people to recycle bottles and cans and to ensure we meet our ambitious EU targets for the recycling of those materials under EU single-use plastics and packaging legislation.

The Separate Collection (Deposit Return Scheme) Regulations, SI 599 of 2021, makes it the responsibility of beverage producers to establish a deposit return scheme and to nominate an operator for approval by the Minister. Those regulations were updated by the Separate Collection (Deposit Return) Regulations 2024, which is SI 33 of this year.

Deposit Return Scheme Ireland CLG, trading as Re-Turn, was established by the Irish beverage industry as a new, not-for-profit company to fulfil its obligations under the DRS regulations. In July 2022, I approved an application from Re-Turn to establish and operate a DRS. This approval is valid for a period of ten calendar years from its commencement date. A review of the approval will take place by July 2025 and that approval will be reviewed every three years thereafter. Re-Turn is obliged to deliver to me an annual report on the scheme, with the first report due by mid-summer.

Under the terms of its approval, Re-Turn is required to operate to the highest standards of corporate governance and specifically in accordance with the code of corporate governance developed for extended producer responsibility schemes. This code is based on the underlying principles of accountability, transparency and probity. My Department is monitoring all operations by Re-Turn closely and I receive very regular updates.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister of State. I have a number of concerns about it. They may all be completely fine and not warranted, but there is no information on the Re-Turn website anywhere about the organisation, how it is structured, who the board of directors are or any of that information. When the Minister of State talks about transparency, it is not there at the moment. He talks about the highest standards of corporate governance. When you look at the board - I have seen a list of names online of people who are on the board but I do not know if this is correct - it would appear there are 11 people on the board. Seven of them are large producers, such as Coca-Cola, Diageo and Heineken. It reads more like a stakeholder group than a board of directors.

It is very unusual to have people on a board who could be deemed to be conflicted because of their originating company. I would be interested to know why those people are on the board and it is not based on skills, which is usually how a board is formed. You look for someone who has accounting, communication and marketing skills, not people who are stakeholders.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy. I take her point that she did not find sufficient information on Re-Turn's website. As I said, I speak to it regularly and indeed receive information from it daily. I will ask it to update its website and add more information, certainly to the level that is on any other. I did not check.

The members of the board, for confirmation, are Tony Keohane, who is independent; Tara Buckley, who represents RGDATA, which is a collection of small retailers; Thomas Bourke from Coca-Cola; Conor Hyland from Heineken; Kevin Donnelly from Britvic Ireland; Rosemary Garth from Tesco; Joseph Owens from the Claddagh Group, which is a west of Ireland bottling company; Shane Kelly from Lidl; Noreen O'Kelly, independent; and David Kelly, independent.

The company is structured as a not-for-profit. It cannot legally distribute profits to its members or distribute dividends. It has also been legally constituted to be a membership organisation that is a producer responsibility organisation. It is built on the same framework or template as an organisation like Repak.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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I would be interested, and the Minister of State might not have the figures now, in what the salaries of the staff are and whether there are any bonuses or salaries being provided to the directors. That is very important information. Regarding the revenues that are made by this not-for-profit company, they could actually be quite large. It has been estimated that from 1 February to this point, there is potentially €65 million in unclaimed vouchers that will be staying with this company. That is a large amount of money. I know it is just the start of this scheme and I would imagine that will be the Minister of State's argument, that it will not be like that all the time. However, if we are looking at Denmark and its 92% rate of recycling, if we apply that in Ireland, that would still mean there are 152 million cans and bottles every year that will not be returned through this scheme. That would equate to between €23 million and 38 million a year, minimum, that this company will have. Does the Exchequer see any of this money or does it remain in this organisation?

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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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.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We move to Question No. 53 in the name of Deputy Darren O'Rourke.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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Do I not come in again?

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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No.