Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein)

Tá Sinn Féin go láidir ar son rud ar bith atá a chosnóidh comhshaol na tíre seo, agus teastaíonn breis cosanta chuige sin. Sin ráite, tá roinnt rudaí sa Bhille seo a chuireann beagáinín imní orainn agus ba mhaith liom iad sin a ardú. Measann muide go bhfuil an Bille seo ag cur brú ar ais arís ar an ghnáth duine agus gurb iadsan atá ag íoc as peacaí na daoine a rinne an scrios sa tír seo ó thaobh cúrsaí airgeadais de. Chomh maith le sin, measann muid nach bhfuil dóthain béime á chur ar na táirgeoirí, na hollmhargaí agus mar sin de agus go bhfuil sé mí-réasúnta go maith.

The Bill should be used as a mechanism to compel manufacturers and wholesalers to reduce the amount of waste they produce. I concur with Senator Keane on the amount of waste they produce. We should examine the matter in further detail and these businesses rather than the less well-off should have greater penalties applied to them in respect of the waste they create.

Sinn Féin is committed to the promotion of a zero waste strategy that rejects incineration. Contrary to Senator Byrne's remarks, we seem to be the only party in Leinster House taking this stance on incineration and ecological issues. Our policy is to keep landfill to a minimum, support waste reduction, reuse and recycling, close all unsafe landfill sites and carry out full remediation of contaminated sites that are not operating properly. We continue to oppose the environmentally destructive policy of incineration even if it is called thermal treatment.

Is cuma cén t-ainm a thugann duine air, cuir síoda ar ghabhar ach is gabhar i gcónaí é. We take a rights-based approach to the environment. Having a clean environment is a right that must be upheld to achieve a better quality of life.

The Bill represents a lost opportunity for the Minister to set progressive timeframed targets to minimise waste going to landfill. It introduces a provision to allow the Minister to set a plastic bag levy as high as 70 cent. This is not a good measure because it leaves too much leeway and will penalise people. We support a bag levy, something that our Sinn Féin colleagues in the Assembly have introduced, but 70 cent is high. The focus of the Bill is wrong, in that it hits the less well-off. This scandalous provision comes during a week in which we are investing a further €18 billion in the banks, much of which will be used to underpin unguaranteed bondholders.