Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Exactly. They say they have a major interest in the environment. It was only the day before yesterday that it came to our notice that Fianna Fáil wanted to table a Bill on the issue. Is that the reason Fine Gael has decided to jump on board? We know the Labour Party also considered tabling a Bill. When I moved the Bill on First Stage I know there was a general feeling of consensus across parties that these micro-plastics are bad for the environment and that this would achieve momentum but it has been stopped dead in the water. We are losing time while these particles continue to be washed down our drains.I hope that the Minister may reconsider his move. I fully intend to work with whoever will make this Bill happen because there is general consensus that these micro-beads and micro-plastics are polluting the water.

In 1986, I had the good luck to be in Antarctica for six weeks on board a Greenpeace ship. I will never forget sailing into Antarctic waters. We expect the polar regions to be pristine, because they are the last wilderness, and I was shocked to see plastic bottles floating around in those waters. Is that what we want in Ireland? Do we want to contribute to this kind of plastic waste in our oceans? Our country took leadership and banned plastic bags and charged a price if anyone wanted to buy one. We became for a time the beacon of Europe and the world because people saw that as a very positive measure. This Bill should get a further hearing and we should once again take leadership and be seen to do the right thing for the marine environment, the rivers, the lakes and the human species.

There is research under way in the United Kingdom on the impact of micro-beads and micro-plastics on the marine environment. The Minister told me this morning that when bringing forward a Bill like this we should inform the European Commission. That is his job. When legislation is prepared, if any authorities, in this case the European Commission, need to be informed it is up to the Minister or the Department to do that. That is a totally unsatisfactory excuse for not reading the Bill a second time. I ask the Minister to consider enabling this Bill to go forward and not to disable the process. He should not slow down the process any further. We have all agreed that micro-beads and micro-plastics need to be banned from our environment. Let us get going and leave this Bill as it stands in place and receive a second hearing. Short of that, I offer the Minister every constructive help to ensure that we ban the manufacture and sale of micro-beads as soon as possible. I would rather that my Bill, which is relatively simple, go forward to Committee Stage for amendment. If the Minister insists on killing it and continuing to enable and allow pollution every second of the day into our rivers, lakes and marine environment, that will be a big error because we are continuing to create more problems in our environment and not working towards solutions. I ask him to consider what I say.