Seanad debates

Thursday, 11 December 2003

Address by Ms Avril Doyle, MEP.

 

On the packaging waste directive, I have been very involved in trying to get Ireland a derogation, along with Spain, Portugal and Greece, to 2010 if not 2011 before we have to comply with the directive. That will have a major impact because we do not have the network or the infrastructure to meet the waste recycling rates met by the rest of Europe. We have to be practical in what we sign up to but if we sign up under environmental and waste legislation, this country has to be fit to deliver. However, we should not sign up just for the sake of a quiet life in Europe. We should sign when we can commit and deliver rather than have 121 different items of European legislation that we have not transposed into Irish law and on which we will be hauled before the European courts. That is not the best way to behave.

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