Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

I ask the Leader to request the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Cullen, to attend the House to discuss waste management. Yesterday, the Minister launched a report on Ireland's waste management over the next five years and said we need more incinerators. We need to pose a number of questions to the Minister in this regard. For example, if incinerators are to be built, where will that leave all the waste that is being recycled? Given the lack of recycling infrastructure, waste that is currently scheduled for recycling may have to be burned to sustain incinerators.

Currently, recycled waste is being exported abroad but I would like to know what the Minister is doing to ensure that waste is not being incinerated in foreign countries. As far as I can see, he is more committed to incineration than recycling in this country.