Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief because we have many amendments to get through. If we do not get some of them on the record, we may not have the opportunity on Report Stage to table similar amendments.

Our amendment in this group, amendment No. 36, would allow the Minister to make regulations to exclude an environmental levy charge on customers for certain single-use items where those items are required by that person due to disability. In 2018, Greenpeace, the environmental NGO, stated:

As we move to rid our oceans, beaches, and parks of unnecessary single-use plastics, disabled people should not be used as a scapegoat by large corporations or governments who are unwilling to push suppliers and manufacturers to produce a better solution.

We should be phasing out single-use plastics completely, but it is important that companies are pushed to produce a flexible non-plastic alternative. I will not press the amendment because I would like the Minister of State to return with something on Report Stage that would push companies to produce environmentally sound alternatives to single-use plastics. I hope he is open to that.