Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I will pick up on the EU regulation element. The Minister of State has confirmed it just applies to textiles, which was my understanding. That is deeply disappointing. As he rightly pointed out, France has gone further than that on a national level. The argument that products will simply be shipped to another country does not stack up. If that was the case then France did not have those concerns despite it having a rail network that would make it easier and cheaper for companies to transport the products to other EU states. If companies were seeking to transport product out of Ireland they would literally have to ship or fly it out, which adds a cost. The whole point is we must start putting the cost of these practices back on the large corporations.

I listened to Senator Burke talking about the oversupply. The problem is what has happened with the business model, namely, these corporations have externalised the costs of their business model. They have outsourced production. There is a reason we do not produce clothes and other items in Ireland anymore. Companies have outsourced production to countries with poorer labour practices and in worst-case scenarios to countries that have child labour and human trafficking. The quality of the product has decreased, which again boosts the profits of these corporations. Items are not designed to be repaired and have built-in obsolescence to force us to buy more. Then we have an issue where it is literally cheaper for corporations to dump the products rather than resell them. The whole point of the Bill is to try to bring some of those costs back onto those responsible for creating this business model.

It should not be about society moving to an online sales model. It should not be our fault that model creates problems for companies that sell online in the form of their having to deal with returns. They should have taken that on board. That is the problem here. With online sales it is more difficult to manage a product that somebody sends back. That is why it is easier just to dump under this business model and that cannot continue. It is not society’s fault but the corporations’ responsibility. Online sales are highly profitable. They now need to take on board the costs and the difficulties that come with that model of handling returns.

I will pick up on some of the other points made. I thank colleagues for speaking in favour of the Bill. Senator Black rightly criticised the Minister, Deputy Coveney’s, attendance at the opening of Shein’s EU headquarters. It needs to be put on record that event was held behind closed doors and for very good reason, which was it prevented journalists from asking difficult questions of that company about its practices and how badly it is ranked internationally when it comes to sustainability.

To get to the root cause we must break the overconsumption business model. That would not only be beneficial for our climate, biodiversity and workers’ rights but also for society. People are constantly being told they must have the latest gadget, mobile phone, smart TV or cosmetic and this places enormous pressure on young people and families and impacts on their mental health. It would be a win-win situation if we did everything within our power to break the business model that just dumps products cheaply and externalises the cost onto society. This Bill is not a silver bullet but would at least deliver a significant wound to the corporations that have got us to this point. It would be effective. The evidence, as I said, is that I have had much contact from Amazon about this Bill with it trying to say why it does not think it would do what we want it to. I always say if representatives are contacting me and laying out how wonderful the company is in a way that can be torn apart by any little bit of research then it is clear the Bill would have the effect we want, which is to try to stop this practice. We cannot stand over a situation where it is cheaper for corporations to dump brand-new, unused products rather than to facilitate their donation, reuse or recycling. That is a broken business model and it is up to us as legislators to fix it and not to have to rely on the EU and its weakened regulation that only applies to textiles.