Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael)

The Minister of State is very welcome to the Chamber. Ireland's whole-of-government circular economy strategy commits us to reducing waste, extending product lifespan and embedding reuse and recycling in every aspect of how we consume and do business. These are ambitious though necessary goals, but in reality our current system is being undermined by global e-commerce. Irish consumers now make more online purchases than almost any other nation in Europe, yet too many of those goods come in from distance sellers who fail to meet Irish recycling and take-back obligations. Compliant Irish retailers are left carrying the cost by paying for recycling and recovery schemes that overseas competitors are simply avoiding. This creates two major problems. The first is a deep competitive imbalance, as domestic retailers, especially small and medium enterprises, are shouldering the financial and administrative burden of compliance while global sellers escape equivalent obligations. The second problem is the risk to Ireland’s environmental targets. Our national recycling rate has stagnated at 41% for the past decade. This is well short of the EU’s 55% target for 2025. Without decisive action we risk missing those binding targets and exposing the State to significant EU penalties, while damaging consumer confidence in our recycling system.

There is strong public support for closing this compliance gap. A new nationally representative survey of 1,000 consumers commissioned by Digital Business Ireland and conducted by Amárach shows six in ten shoppers say they would be less likely to buy from an online retailer that does not contribute to Ireland’s environmental and circular economy targets. Some 80% of consumers expressed at least one concern regarding distance sellers. Cross-border e-commerce is widespread. Some 55% of consumers made at least one online purchase in the past month that required shipping from outside the State. These findings reinforce what Irish businesses have been saying, which is that the public want a level playing field where everyone who profits from the Irish market contributes fairly to its sustainability and where responsible Irish retailers are not subsidising free riders.

There is a straightforward, proven and fair solution, namely, the pay-on-behalf-of model. This approach, already implemented in France, Germany, Italy and Spain ensures online marketplaces take responsibility for registering, reporting and paying environmental compliance fees on behalf of distance sellers who fail to do so. In practice, this means any seller unable to provide an Irish registration number is automatically enrolled in the marketplace pay-on-behalf-of scheme. The marketplace then reports and pays the relevant compliance fees to Irish authorities. This model delivers fairness, simplicity, competitiveness and environmental progress. France’s experience shows such systems can be implemented smoothly. Amazon, for example, already integrates pay-on-behalf-of compliance services into its platform, which proves it is both practical and scalable. Is the Department actively assessing the feasibility of introducing a pay-on-behalf-of model or similar solution in Ireland and, if so, what timeframe is envisaged for the consultation on, design of and roll-out of such a system?