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

Senator Higgins spoke to amendment No. 43. I recognise and agree with this amendment but will not be accepting it as the power to provide exemptions in regulations is already provided in the Bill, and I consider those regulations to be the appropriate vehicle to consider and address all the detailed impact of any levy. In that regard, as I previously indicated, the draft regulations to implement the levy on disposable hot drink cups will be put to public consultation after enactment of the Bill. I will be requesting my officials to specifically invite organisations representing persons with disabilities to contribute to that consultation.

With regard to amendment No. 37, I understand the Senator's concerns regarding the use of virgin raw plastic. I cannot accept the amendment, however, because, as stated, achieving a circular transition is a much broader issue than just plastic. The purpose of the levy is to influence people's behaviour away from single use, not just of plastic items, but in all areas of our daily lives. As Senator Dooley states, we must consider volume. If we recycle a cup, we can get a second use from it, but if we have a strong and durable plastic cup, it could be used 1,000 times. We must consider the volume of materials being used. There is a difference between virgin and recycled plastic, but there is also a major and much larger difference between a single-use item and an item that could be used 1,000 times.

The objective of the policy in this Bill is to reduce the annual consumption of all types of disposable cups and subsequently other forms of single-use disposable packing by inducing people to change their behaviour and switch to using reusable cups. The objective of the levy, therefore, is to change behaviour, preventing the use of single-use items in the first place and thereby preventing the continuous unnecessary use of resources that are required to go into the production and the disposal of single-use items.