Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, and I am sorry to hear that the Minister, Deputy Cullen, is indisposed at the moment. I wish him a speedy recovery.

The issue of waste management is ongoing for as long as I am in the Seanad. All I can do is rehash many of the speeches I have already made. The matter involves collective responsibility on the part of the Government, local authorities, the private sector which deals with waste services and the wider public. The core question is where do we proceed from here? Bringing forward a proper waste management structure acceptable to everyone is a very challenging issue on which there is ongoing debate.

An integrated approach which will look at recycling or re-use – some people do not like the word "recycling"– and how best to minimise or compost waste must be adopted. The crux of the matter is what to do with unavoidable waste. How can we change our ways? Recycling is taking root, albeit at a slow pace. It is now at 13% when it should be much more. It has increased from 9% in 1998 to 13% currently. However, we are a long way off the target to which the Minister referred. There must be a policy on how best to educate the public on waste management. While there are bottle banks and civil amenity services, the public is not with us for whatever reason.

There was a big whinge last year that the power was being taken away from local authorities. Power will not be taken away from local authorities if local councillors take the lead and are prepared to educate themselves and try to bring about an awareness campaign on what is involved, what is recycling, how to reduce our waste and how to get rid of unavoidable waste. There must be consultation with educationalists, including teachers, parents and school children. I want to relate an anecdote from speaking to school teachers in my area. I asked if they could hold their civics class just before lunch time at approximately 12.15 p.m., so that they could talk to their pupils about recycling, waste packaging, dumping of litter on the ground and how best to reduce waste. The teachers did so, the children left the schools at 12.30 p.m., went down to the local shops and the place was littered 15 minutes afterwards, even though they were given a full lesson on how to recycle and reduce waste. Something is not right because there appears to be no link between what children are learning in school and what is happening in the real world. This issue needs to be looked at again in our awareness and educational campaign.