Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I meant to say this when I responded to the Minister of State. On the French law, he said it was not required to donate the items. However, we heard today that the French law was broken up into two sections. The first relates to essential items, which are hygiene products, baby food, nappies, children’s clothes and things like that. They are obliged to be donated under the French legislation. The reason other products, or non-essential items, were excluded in the French law is because France is a particular case in that it has many luxury brands. The lobbying done by the likes of Louis Vuitton was enormous.The French Government basically capitulated on that point and said that because there could not be a distinction for the luxury brands because they did not want to donate - heaven forbid - their luxury items to the lesser classes in society, it would not require non-essential items to be donated. Instead, they would have to be reused, resold or recycled. Our Bill does not make such a distinction because, as others have said, it is the business model that needs to change. This is designed as a stick to force that model to change and to force the overproduction of items to stop. If Burberry, Louis Vuitton or other designers want to maintain brand value and think it is appropriate to destroy items in order to do so, they need to start making fewer items rather than justify destroying them. As I have said, there is a distinction in what we have done. We have learned from the French example. I just wanted to make sure the Minister of State is aware of that clear distinction. Our Bill does not allow for recycling but requires donation, reuse or reselling.