Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----but what we are talking about here is ensuring that the concern that was expressed last week by many households can be addressed by Government in a comprehensive way, and that is happening.

The other thing that we have got from the industry is an absolute commitment on incontinence wear and the waste that it incurs. 60,000 people in Ireland require incontinence wear from the HSE, which involves about 40,000 tonnes of waste a year. If, for example, households had to pay for that, at, say, €30 or €35 a tonne on a pay-by-weight charge, that would cost up to €12 million. The industry has made it quite clear that it will not charge for that waste now but will consider a credit system to support households and to ensure that they do not incur the cost of that waste. We are trying to respond. One can call it new politics or whatever one wants to call it. The support that we have got for these proposals from Fianna Fáil is not about some kind of political alliance.