Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Thankfully, in this country now when constructing a new building, one has universal design. By and large, there are lifts, tactile paving and it is accessible to people with disabilities. Yet we have introduced a brand new plastic bottle return scheme that is completely inaccessible to many people with disabilities. There are no tactile Braille facilities on the machines. Many of the machines are too high for wheelchair users to return bottles. There are no facilities for people with disabilities, carers or elderly people who do click-and-collect shopping or who have their shopping delivered. Everything about this scheme from start to finish is an absolute mess. I am getting complaints from people with disabilities, from disability groups, from retailers, and from elderly people since I raised this issue in the Seanad some weeks ago prior to the scheme going live. The number of people who have contacted me with various concerns is particularly interesting and worrying.

As I said before, the machines should be available at every bottle bank in the country. They should be in municipal districts and in council facilities. They should not be exclusively available to the big businesses which can afford to buy these machines at an enormous cost and which benefit from the footfall and the vouchers issued by the machines. The scheme should be put on hold and it should be fundamentally rethought to make it equitable and fair to the businesses which cannot afford the schemes, and to the people who cannot use the machines. They deserve equality in what we call a modern country where we pride ourselves in creating access and universal design.