Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to amendments Nos. 62 and 63. I will be very brief because I understand we have many amendments to get through. Amendment No. 62 deals with the definition of food waste as meaning food loss and food waste. We discussed this on Committee Stage. We are very concerned that food loss is not being captured by the circular economy Bill because it is not defined. Most people are aware that 30% of food that is purchased is disposed of. Food loss is the food that never makes it to the shop shelf. That includes food which is left in the ground because the farmer deems it more financially viable to leave it there than to harvest it. It also deals with food that gets disturbed or spoiled along the way. It is really important to capture food loss because if we are only capturing food waste, we are missing a large proportion of the actual food waste that is going on. I would like the Minister of State to outline why he would not accept the amendment on Committee Stage. I hope he has changed his mind now. We need to capture the whole picture.

Amendment No. 63 again deals with the French example of the supermarket refill stations putting the onus on the corporations and not on the individuals. We know that many goods lend themselves to refill packaging rather than the single-use packaging, including dry foods, detergents and cosmetics. The French law obliges any supermarket larger than 400 sq. m to dedicate 20% of its space to refill. This has been in action in France for years and is working really well. Anybody who travels to France can see it. People bring Tupperware containers to the supermarket and refill them with beans, rice, flour or whatever.

I disagree with the Minister of State's rationale for not accepting amendment No. 64. I spent five years in Europe. It drives me mad that when we want to do something positive, we are often told that EU law precludes us from doing it and it is used as an excuse for not taking action. Here we have an example that is proven. The French are doing it so it is not contrary to EU law. However, we are being told that we should just hang on and wait for the EU to do it. That is really disappointing and lacking in ambition. We need to lead. We need to look to what has been done successfully in France. The French banned the disposal of food items years ago.

I was in the European Parliament for the negotiations of the single-use plastics directive. Even though that was one of the fastest directives to get passed, it still took almost a year. The Minister of State said we are talking about addressing the issue of dumping unused non-food products. The Government introduced two non-consequential amendments to this Bill because Ireland was so slow in enacting a 2019 derogation. Even if the EU were to take this on board and move from talking about it to enacting it, it would still take a couple of years. That is the reality of how EU legislation works. When EU legislation is passed, Ireland has a particularly bad record of transposing that legislation and so it could take another three years, as happened with the non-consequential electricity amendment the Government made to this Bill on Committee Stage. The letter from the Commission came in 2019 informing us that we needed to act on it and we have now fast-tracked it through.

I urge the Minister of State to reconsider his approach to amendment No. 64 and seize the opportunity. He is the Minister of State. Everybody says that one day in government is better than years in opposition. The Minister of State has an opportunity to show the leadership and take a radical step.