Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This coming Friday marks the close of a public consultation on a levy that is proposed by the Government and the Minister of State with responsibility for the circular economy in respect of disposable and single-use cups for hot beverages. What is there to oppose about that? In the documentation that has given rise to the public consultation, there is much talk about how it will be along the same lines as the plastic bag levy, which we know has been a huge success and which I, for one, absolutely support. Why would anyone not be in favour of a similar levy for coffee cups?The simple reason is that it is being applied completely inconsistently. The public consultation, as far as I can see, refers only to hot beverage cups and that is what is in the documentation that has gone with it, which ignores the fact the likes of McDonald's, Burger King and other fast-food outlets also sell Coke, 7-Up and so on in single-use disposable cups that are waxed and not recyclable. Globally, that accounts for more than 200 million cups a year, yet that is not the subject of this public consultation or of the proposed regulations from the State.

Instead, the regulations propose to put a 20 cent levy on coffee cups from small, independent coffee shops. I fully support the idea that people should be conscious of the volume of waste they generate and should endeavour to use reusable cups, and the funny thing is these businesses do too. Small coffee shops in all our local areas, in places such as Blackrock, Dún Laoghaire and Glasthule, are some of the most environmentally conscious businesses in our economy. In fact, the vast majority of them sell coffee in compostable cups that are recyclable but cannot be recycled because local authorities do not have the facilities on street to gather and recycle them.

Why is the Government not targeting that? Why is it specifically proposing in the regulations that even compostable and recyclable cups will be subject to this levy, simply because it wants to target reuse? I am all for targeting reuse, but let us do it consistently across the sector. Let us also hit McDonald's, Burger King and other companies that produce non-recyclable, non-compostable waste that goes into landfill or incineration. It is something on which we should have a debate because the consultation will end this week and the regulations are due to come in next month. We should have a debate on the matter in this Chamber.