Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 64 should be supported. I am not going to elaborate further on my own amendments in terms of in-built obsolescence. These are also areas in which Italy and France have taken the lead and where measures have been put in place. What I would expect in a circular economy Bill is that we would be having detailed proposals on how the Government has decided to follow the French or Italian models. We looked at these models when this was at pre-legislative scrutiny stage. I have not prescriptively said how the Government should approach it but the Government should say it is going to do what France and Italy have done. It should say we have invented a new approach and we are part of the discussion on addressing obsolescence, and not simply at an EU level but at those discussions taking place at national level.

We talk about people taking responsibility for the individual consumer decisions and choices they make whereby a person should do what he or she can and make small gestures. Here is something the State can do. If we are asking everybody to make these choices in their individual personal lives, let us ask the State and the Government actively to make the choices that are within their power and not pass this down the line. That kind of thing would send a genuine signal. I regret that the Minister of State is not accepting any of these amendments.