Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators Garvey, Martin and Pauline O'Reilly for bringing forward this important motion. It is great to see universal support for it in the House. I will try to address some of the points raised by Senators.

There is no doubt that the roll-out of water refill stations across the country is very popular, especially with young people. Buying bottled water is hugely expensive, particularly during the summer months. Young people are demanding and leading change on this issue. I met with primary school pupils from Carlow during a visit to South East Technological University, SETU, this week who asked that the Government address the issue of plastic pollution. As Senator Boyhan said, drinking water fountains were once commonplace in public buildings and spaces throughout the country. I remember them in schools many years ago. It is correct to say that our municipal drinking water is of excellent quality and much better than many of the bottled water brands people are buying, some of which may be high in sodium and not good quality at all. Senators may be familiar with the Story of Stuff campaign on the history of bottled water and how it originated. It is fascinating.

Senator Garvey spoke about how it took three years to get a refill station opened in Ennistymon. We need to ramp this provision up significantly right across the country. I am aware of the refill.iewebsite.

Senator Boyhan referred to group water schemes. I am a huge supporter and fan of the National Federation of Group Water Schemes, which does fantastic work for biodiversity across the country.

I will take Senator Cummins's question on the repair and leasing scheme back to the Department. Waterford City Council has been very effective at using the scheme to leverage extra supply.

The Government does not intend to oppose the motion. I welcome the Senators' acknowledgement in the motion text of the actions taken by the Government to date to address the serious issues they have raised. I will set out for the House the good progress that has been made on each of them. The Government is aware that access to drinking water is a key target under UN sustainable development goal No. 6, which relates to clean water and sanitation, and is central to the recast EU drinking water directive. As Senators are aware, the programme for Government is committed to developing a scheme between local authorities and Uisce Éireann to provide drinking water fountains nationwide and thereby reduce plastic bottle litter. This was referred to by Senator Martin. Senators will also be aware of the single-use plastic initiative from the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications.

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, established the drinking water expert group to provide advice on the appropriate preparations and steps necessary for the transposition and successful implementation of the recast EU drinking water directive. The directive has been transposed into law under the European Union (Drinking Water) Regulations 2023, SI 99 of 2023. These regulations incorporate regulation No. 16, on access to water intended for human consumption, which provides for improved access to water through raising awareness of outdoor and indoor accessible drinking water and the provision of drinking water in public places and buildings. In response to both the programme for Government commitment and the recast drinking water directive, initiatives have commenced to provide drinking water fountains in public places to improve access to drinking water.

Regarding access for rural communities, the National Federation of Group Water Schemes undertook a pilot scheme in 2022 to install drinking water fountains under four group water schemes to provide access to water as required under the programme for Government. These schemes promote the use of reusable water bottles and a move away from plastic water bottle usage. Due to the level of interest generated by this initiative, a proposal is awaited from the federation to extend the pilot scheme for 2023.

Uisce Éireann has engaged with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, on the provision of public drinking water points, which, among other things, will consider the connection charges associated with such provision. Any changes to the water connections policy for drinking water points will have to be updated in the Uisce Éireann water charges plan and approved by the CRU. We have discussed this previously in the House. A provision has been made in the budget for 2023 to develop a pilot scheme for the provision of drinking water fountains in co-operation with local authorities and Uisce Éireann. Based on the outcome of Uisce Éireann's engagement with the CRU, it will liaise with local authorities to deliver a pilot scheme this year, with a larger programme to be delivered over the coming years based on the outcomes and lessons learned from the pilot scheme. In addition, some local authorities have already rolled out drinking water fountains.

Several Senators raised the issue of marine litter. The Government is keenly aware that plastics are persistent environmental pollutants and are found in all marine environments worldwide. The marine environment team in my Department works to monitor, assess and reduce marine litter, primarily through the marine strategy framework directive, the OSPAR Convention and the implementation of the Microbeads (Prohibition) Act 2019. Education and outreach funded by my Department are a big part of the initiatives to raise awareness and encourage change, including An Taisce's advocacy on marine litter, green schools and clean coasts. Plastics continue to enter and accumulate in the marine environment from land or sea-based sources, both directly as microplastics or as macrolitter that can in turn break down into microplastics. Worldwide, coasts and estuaries close to highly populated areas have the highest abundance of microplastics.

In Ireland, several studies, including one commissioned and funded by my Department and cited in an article in The Irish Times, have been undertaken to determine the amount of microplastics in coasts and offshore sediments. Results from these studies show the number of microplastic particles found per kilogram of sediment in Irish waters is lower than that found in other European countries. To identify trends in and sources of microplastics over the longer term, a national monitoring campaign is being set up in conjunction with the Marine Institute. These data will be reported under the marine strategy framework directive and will enable targeting of measures to manage inputs.Beach macro-litter monitoring is long-established at designated sites around the coast as part of the OSPAR marine litter monitoring programme. In 2021, an EU-wide threshold value of 20 items per 100 m was introduced. Although at 31 items per 100 m Ireland has not yet reached this threshold value, we are considerably lower than the 250 items per 100 m of the OSPAR region and a decreased trend is observed. Of the marine litter items collected on these beaches, almost 40% were single-use plastic items such as plastic bottles. Again, I pay tribute to all the Clean Coasts communities around the country who are doing invaluable work in cleaning up marine plastics on our beaches.

The recently published marine strategy framework directive programme of measures includes 34 measures to tackle marine litter, ranging from prevention at source to enforcement to continued education and training. In terms of single-use plastics, Ireland is committed to tackling the environmental degradation caused by these plastics and by plastic packaging in general. The Government has supported the introduction of measures to deal with this at EU level and has committed to achieving and exceeding the challenges for member states that have been agreed at EU level.

A Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy: Ireland’s National Waste Policy 2020-2025 sets out an ambitious range of measures to place Ireland at the top of the EU performance with regard to single-use plastics. These include full implementation of the single-use plastics directive, including bans on specific products being placed on the market; the introduction of new producer responsibility initiatives, PRIs; the introduction of environmental levies on disposable coffee cups, cold drink cups and disposable food containers; the introduction of incentivising pricing for commercial waste to improve waste segregation in the commercial sector and support higher levels of plastics recycling; and the introduction of a deposit-and-return scheme for plastic bottles and aluminium beverage cans. The coffee cup levy will be introduced later this year as a means of encouraging people to use reusable cups and, ultimately, eliminate the disposal of 200 million single-use coffee cups, which occurs every year in Ireland. The deposit-and-return scheme is on track for going live in quarter 1 of 2024. The scheme operator, Re-Turn, is in the process of registering producers and retailers to the scheme and a number of retailers already have reverse vending machines in their stores that allow customers to return their used bottles or cans in exchange for credit. Senator Martin highlighted the case in Naas, which has been hugely successful. They are starting to appear all over the country, however.

In terms of single-use plastics and drinking water, I would like to highlight further measures specifically relating to public drinking water and the programmes by which those measures are now being implemented. Measures that promote free public sources of drinking water encourage people to bring a refillable cup or drink from a tap, which includes the local authority prevention network, which has developed a guide for local government and communities that supports access to free drinking-water refill points. It provides funding for the installation of public drinking-water fonts.In 2022, funds were provided to five local authorities for this purpose. The refill.iewebsite, which was referenced by Senator Garvey, is a non-profit community-led initiative funded by the Environmental protection Agency, EPA, and local government that maps the 1,600-plus locations across the country where reusable water bottles can be refilled for free. The GAA's Green Clubs initiative, funded by local government and Uisce Éireann, provides free reusable bottles to selected clubs. I know the Senator raised the matter with uachtarán Chumann Lúthchleas Gael. It is great to see the GAA moving into sustainability and green initiatives. We need all sporting organisations to continue to do this.

Measures are in place to make reusable alternatives to single-use plastics available to consumers in large public events. The local authority prevention network has developed a green festival kit for local festivals. The kit includes a guide and other resources which encourage event organisers to provide drinking-water fonts and reusable cups and glasses to festivalgoers. I certainly know already from the Savour Kilkenny food festival that we have had that in place for the last three years and it has been hugely popular. They have almost eliminated plastic, which, at a food festival, is highly commendable. A guide for plastic-free events is being developed by local government for the event and festival industry, which includes a number of pilot single-use plastic free events. Once the guide is available, work will commence with relevant authorities to look at licensing arrangements for large events with a view to mandating conditions to licences issued prohibiting the use of disposable cups and containers.

Finally, the Exchequer-funded expert group drinking-water fountain pilot project in 2022 will continue this funding into 2023. The longer-term funding for this initiative will be evaluated based on post-project review of the cost benefit associated with the project. My colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is developing proposals to provide support for the delivery of public water fountains across Ireland through the new circular economy fund. These proposals, which will be informed by consultation with my Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, Uisce Éireann and the County and City Management Association, will involve direct funding support for the provision of fountains such as those installed by Monaghan County Council in a number of towns in the county. Proposals will be announced later this year. That is not to take from the really important debate we are having this afternoon.

It is really important that this motion was brought forward. Senator Garvey has brought this up consistently with my me and my colleague. It is really significant that we are now moving on the commitments in the programme for Government to work towards eliminating unnecessary plastic in our environment. That is why the motion that has been brought before us today is hugely valuable in ensuring we have a good debate and move the initiative along. It is absolutely vital that safe public drinking water should be made available as a right to communities right across the country in our public spaces.