Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I can hear the Senator's enthusiasm. I have to give the Department credit for doing a lot of work, before I was appointed, in engaging with the industry. I refer not just to the people making bottles, but to the retailers themselves. They were making sure that it would not be a scheme that would work in theory but not in practice or something that people would be against. Part of that involved bringing retailers to meet their equivalents in other countries where the scheme had been running for decades and allowing one supermarket owner to say directly to another what happens in practice, how the scheme works and how it can be made work.

Last week, I was in Spain for St. Patrick's Day and I visited the person who is in charge of setting up the scheme in Spain, which is facing the same issues as we are although it is not as far down the road as we are. Engagement is the most important part so that we do not bring in a scheme that works in theory but not in practice. We have the industry, the retailers and the public on side.

The Senator mentioned littering during the pandemic. One would wake up in the morning and find the remains of picnics. When the bars were closed, people, and not just young people, were leaving large quantities of cans and bottles in fields. That is not going to happen when they are worth money. Nobody is going to leave cash on the ground. It will be an immediate solution to that problem. I expect the Tidy Towns groups will find that not only will there be much less to pick up, but that what they do pick up will be worth money.