Results 1-20 of 1,021,709 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Ciarán Cuffe OR speaker:Richard Bruton OR speaker:Jennifer Whitmore)
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Richard Bruton: I welcome the work the Minister of State has undertaken since the passage of the Act. I must say, however, that his Department continues to view the circular economy through the very narrow lens of waste and levies on waste materials. That is evidenced in his own presentation but also in the plan which he recently presented, where the ambition is zero growth in waste per head of population...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Richard Bruton: Where is the strategy for that?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Richard Bruton: Two years ago we were talking about this Bill that became an Act. We were talking about the EPA. These are the very same things that we are talking about and I worry the scope to do something different is on a long lead. We need to nail down dates for each of these elements. If you go into a building site today, the smaller building sites are not separating their material. Everything is...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Richard Bruton: Does the Minister of State want to comment on green procurement?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Richard Bruton: As the Minister of State certainly knows, the practice has been that it is the procurers who decide what it is they are procuring and they create the need for the framework. If they do not embed the need for green principles, it will not make it into the framework and they will not be found to be non-compliant because it was not specified in the first place. The view has always been that...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Richard Bruton: Will the Minister of State or someone in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform let us know our baseline, say, in 2023 or whatever it was before this started and how we are progressing? Will there be some measures that will show us that information? I do not imagine than an awful lot of textiles are being procured, and maybe there are in...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Jennifer Whitmore: I thank the Minister of State for coming in today. My daughter asked me to say "Thank you very much" on her behalf as she makes an absolute killing from returning bottles and cans, which also considerably reduces the amount of pocket money required from her parents. I want to raise the issue of disability proofing the new recycling machines. When the circular economy Bill was before the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Jennifer Whitmore: A huge amount of money would have been spent on designing these machines. They will not be easily retrofitted to make them accessible so this work should have been done. Re-turn Ireland won a contract or was the designated body that the Government established to run the scheme. I gather from what the Minister of State has said is that there was no direct consultation with the likes of the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Jennifer Whitmore: I would like to get an understanding of exactly what level of consultation took place, and perhaps this needs to come from Re-turn Ireland itself. My guess is that either there was no or very limited consultation or that when consultation happened, the feedback it got was not incorporated into the design because we essentially have machinery in all the major supermarkets across the country...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Jennifer Whitmore: That is just to use them, however. Essentially, Re-turn Ireland was to set up a scheme that was accessible under the rules that Government set down. Dopes the Minister of Sate believe it has set up a scheme that is accessible, and, if not, what is he going to do?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Jennifer Whitmore: It is a binary thing for someone in a wheelchair who cannot reach the hole to put in the container.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Jennifer Whitmore: It is hard, though. I am really conscious of my time, so the Minister of State might forgive me if I am cutting across him. If a blind person goes up to a machine to try to access it, there is no voice telling him or her what to do. There are no buttons, symbols or Braille or anything on the machine. The first time I used it, I was sort of standing there wondering what to do. If a person...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Jennifer Whitmore: I am sure it is.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Jennifer Whitmore: However, the Minister-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Jennifer Whitmore: Yes, but we are not talking about shopping. We are talking about-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Jennifer Whitmore: However-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Jennifer Whitmore: The best time to make them accessible was at the start. According to the Minister of State, the Government said it was to be an accessible machine, but it seems to me that Re-turn has not done that. What engagement will the Minister of State have with Re-turn to tell it it did not adhere to our guidance and statutory instrument and to ask it how it will rectify the situation? Going...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Jennifer Whitmore: But this relates to something the Minister of State said.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Jennifer Whitmore: Has the consultative group the Minister of State mentioned been set up?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)
Jennifer Whitmore: Has it met?