Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I particularly thank Senators Boylan, Ó Donnghaile, Gavan and Warfield for this simple, but important, Bill.

Following on from what Senator Boylan has said, there are things happening in Europe. They are, perhaps, too slow. We should not wait. We have a strong record. We have the Green Party in government. It is appropriate, and the right time, to pursue this legislation. It can always be amended, improved and changed, but let us send out a strong signal that we mean business here. I know the Minister of State particularly does.

I thank Senator Boylan for an informative briefing in Leinster House today in which we saw some shocking audiovisual aspects of this issue. Clearly, there is a massive global overproduction of many consumer goods, such as cloths, but also clothing, textile products, etc. Every year, millions of unsustainable unsold products are destroyed. They are not passed on. They are not given to anyone, and that is a deliberate policy. The Minister of State understands that policy well, as everyone in this House does.

One possible reason being argued and put forward by Amazon is that because of EU VAT rules, it can be cheaper or easier for companies to dump or to incinerate unsold goods rather than donate them to charity. There are reasons they fear, if they go to charity, they may be released or distributed somewhere else but that is not a good enough reason for what is being done. For others, it is about protecting their brand image exclusively. It is preferable for them to destroy these products rather than sell them or to have them resold at cheaper prices.

I would like to refer to investigations by Greenpeace, an organisation that does exceptional work all over the globe. From these investigations and other investigations, it has been identified that many companies are involved in the practice of dumping these products. The most high-profile investigations have focused on Amazon, but there are others where allegations are very significant - we saw some of them in the visuals today. I have looked at documentaries on the BBC. Some extracts from ITN were used at today's briefing in Leinster House to illustrate the enormity of this situation. It is important we acknowledge that many of these unsold goods are dumped, particularly in the UK, in France and in Germany, but in Ireland too. We heard today reports about luxury fashion items from Burberry, which destroyed €28 million worth of unsold clothes, perfumes and accessories, with over €90 million of clothes dumped. What a disgrace. What an absolute scandal. Something needs to be done. Richemont, which as the Minister of State will be aware owns the exclusive brands of Cartier and Montblanc, has been accused of destroying unsold watches worth hundreds of millions of euro. What a waste. The production of these goods has social, environmental and human ramifications and costs and we need to address them. These concerns were highlighted today at Senator Boylan's informative preparatory session providing background detail on this Bill.

When one looks further, one can see that Greenpeace has highlighted some of these impacts, which may include the mining of rare and precious materials and the possibility of using child labour. Child labour is involved. When one drills down and pulls at the different parts of all of this production, one has to look at issues. Yesterday, we had another briefing in the audiovisual room about the international use of child labour for cheap products which flood world markets for clothes and consumer goods. There are many components to this. There are concerns that the production of high volumes of electronic devices consumes significant amounts of water. There are many issues around this such as the issue of incineration, and what a waste that is. There are many concerns about the practices of richer nations such as the exportation of their waste to poor countries, or, as some call it, waste colonialisation, which has led to African beaches and deserts, including the Atacama Desert, being destroyed with unwanted clothes. It is a world stage, but it is a global impact. In Ireland, we can do something and this Bill seeks to do it.

It is important that we look at what happens in other jurisdictions. There are different things in different jurisdictions. As Senator Boylan said, are we to hang around and wait for our European counterparts to take the lead on aspects of this such as clothing? We can lead from the front now and we can do something about it. We can look at the ecodesign of sustainable production regulations. Europe has proposed the establishment of a framework, which the Minister of State would be aware of, which has specific objectives, goals and aspirations, but at the end of the day, we need progress and we need it fast.

I acknowledge the Library and Research Service of this House that prepared an extensive briefing paper on this issue. It was released today, but they have been doing ongoing work. I seriously encourage people to look at what is going on. When we talk about best practice, the Library and Research Service has identified issues around initiatives in Scotland, Spain, Belgium and, as we heard in Senator Boylan's briefing, France.

This is an exceptionally good Bill. It is an important Bill. I hope the Government will accept it, but let us progress it further. As Senator Boylan says, there may be room for improvement and additions, but it is a good place to start. I believe the Minister of State is committed to it. I believe many Members on the Government benches are committed to it. It is a plank of Green Party policy in government and one that the Green Party has demonstrated, time and again, its commitment to. The Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, therefore, should not let his position in government in some way make him feel that he cannot push the agenda further.I hope he will support this Sinn Féin Bill, which is admirable. It is important that it proceeds and gets enacted. It is deserving of support from every Member of this House.