Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

My provisions earlier were too wide. I was told these were too general. I accept they were very general because I was trying to give power to the Minister and not to have prescriptive powers. These are very specific, however. They address all those issues of legal concerns in that it is specific policies. It mirrors legislation that is legal and that is already in place in France. It sets out clear fines. Unless we address those issues and create regulations and, indeed, financial disincentives to the shameful disposal of goods before any consumer gets to make any decision about them, then unfortunately the capitalist market to which we give such space will, in fact, incentivise the creation of false scarcity and disposal of goods in an irresponsible way.

This comes up repeatedly. We need to be very clear that unfettered capitalism will kill us all unless we exercise our power as citizens and democracies to constrain it. The economy sits within political jurisdictions, some of which are, luckily, democracies. Northern countries and wealthier countries like Ireland have a particular responsibility to lead on this.