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

I absolutely agree with what the Senator is trying to achieve. However, I will not be accepting amendments Nos. 14 and 74, which deal with different aspects of how we use and dispose of consumer goods. Significantly enhanced repairability and ease of maintenance of consumer goods is an essential component of the circular economy. The whole-of-government circular economy strategy recognises this and commits to the development of a circular economy for consumer goods with an enhanced focus on the repair sector in Ireland. Meaningful changes to requirements on, for example, product design, guarantees, consumer information and labelling can be most effectively implemented by way of comprehensive EU legislation rather than through national measures, which can be piecemeal. This is particularly true for those member states which represent relatively small markets, such as Ireland.

The European Commission recently announced comprehensive measures in the form of a proposal for a regulation on ecodesign for sustainable products and a proposal for a directive to empower consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and better information. The proposed ecodesign regulation will address product design and set new requirements to make products more durable, reliable, reusable, upgradable, reparable, easier to maintain, refurbish and recycle and more energy and resource efficient. The proposed directive on consumer information will support improved participation of consumers in the circular economy through the provision of information on the durability and reparability of products and by enhancing consumer protection against unfair commercial practices that prevent sustainable purchases. These include greenwashing, built-in obsolescence and the use of unreliable and non-transparent sustainability labels and information tools.

The EU is working on this. What the public will see are labels on consumer goods that are similar to the type of labelling that indicates energy efficiency. Products will have a clear colour-coded A, B, C, D, E or F rating to indicate the durability of the product, how long it will last if bought and how easy it will be to repair it. People will be able to tell they are buying a product that will give them five, ten or 15 years service and they can make an informed consumer decision. To do this we need a testing mechanism from an independent body that provides reliable results on the lifespan of a product and how repairable it is. This will be backed up by European rules to force manufacturers to provide spare parts and manuals so that we get away from built-in obsolescence. Built-in obsolescence is not a myth. It is a real design philosophy for some companies.I am sure of that from speaking to the people who work in the repair sector. They have told me that even some high-end products are designed in such a way that after a certain period people need to buy another product. Moving towards more durable products is a return to the way that products were designed in the past. That is a welcome addition and is happening at an EU level. One of the people who is working on that is Ciarán Cuffe, MEP, whom I will meet soon and he is deeply involved in the right to repair. I believe we can really achieve something at an EU level that we cannot do at a local level. However, at a local level we can help anyone who is involved in the repair sector through grants or funding from the circular economy fund, when it is set up. That could be entities like men's sheds, repair cafés or repair shops. The right to repair is extremely important and I think that it will have a lot of public support. I do not propose to accept these amendments, however.