Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 1341: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the reason customers are paying additional charges arising from the implementation of the EU directive on electrical goods despite the commitment that was given that no charge would pass to consumers in respect of this matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24526/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The EU directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment required each member state to introduce regulations providing for a producer funded take-back scheme for consumers of end-of-life equipment from 13 August 2005. This directive covers a wide range of equipment from large business equipment, such as large refrigeration units, down to the smallest of consumer products such as pocket calculators and the like. Under the terms of the directive, the funding of such take-back schemes is a producer responsibility. The directive also requires the achievement by member states of specified targets for recovery, reuse and recycling by producers of different classes of waste electrical and electronic equipment.

In general, prices generally are falling in the electrical and electronic sectors and this trend is expected to continue. Even in areas where there are price pressures, due to low margins and high recycling costs, particularly the white goods area, consumers are benefiting now under the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive by availing of free recycling services which did not exist before 13 August. Visible environmental management costs are input costs and how these are dealt with in the pricing of products is part of the normal negotiations between producer and retailer. To put the overall impact of the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive in context, it is estimated that the total cost of recycling waste equipment under the new scheme is around €14 million in an industry of in excess of €1.4 billion annually. Having regard to this, the overall impact on the electric and electronic sector is likely to be negligible.

The Waste Management (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Regulations 2005 which fully transpose the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive in Ireland were introduced following two public consultations. The first of these followed publication of the waste electrical and electronic equipment taskforce report in April 2004, and the second followed publication of draft regulations in April 2005. The directive also requires member states to ensure for a transitional period of eight years, ten years for large household appliances, producers are allowed to show purchasers, at the time of sale of new products, the costs of collection, treatment and disposal of historic waste electrical and electronic equipment in an environmentally sound manner. A fundamental aim of the directive is to ensure the cost of recycling electronic and electrical equipment is built into the product price in the same way as the raw material costs of steel and plastic etc, manufacturing, distribution and sale. The transposition of the directive into Irish law was, therefore, subject to much discussion with producers, importers and retailers of electrical and electronic goods. While there were varying opinions on how the provisions for historic waste should operate, the majority view among the industry, for reasons of fuller transparency and greater accountability, favoured a system of visible environmental management costs in the manner now implemented. The design of the new system assures the public that the moneys collected for recycling are actually assigned for recycling activity and are not diverted elsewhere.

The transparency of environmental management costs provides consumers with maximum information, facilitates easier implementation of the scheme, ensures traceability and greater financial accountability, allows all companies, large and small, to know precisely the cost structures involved, and by informing the public in an open way, ensures that profiteering is prevented. This system of visible environmental management costs was supported by national regulations. Producers have to fund not only the recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment arising from goods they place on the market since August 2005, but also the recycling of all waste electrical and electronic equipment arising from goods placed on the market prior to this. The problem of dealing with this historic waste is a real one and producers must fund the management of these earlier wastes on the basis of their current market share. This includes paying for all historic waste as it arises whether it is taken back by a retailer on a one-for-one basis or deposited at a local authority civic amenity site. It also includes paying for waste from producers who are no longer in the market.

The free recycling service, now being utilised by an increasing number of people, represents a considerable saving on waste disposal costs previously borne by consumers. Charges which previously applied at local authority recycling centres have not applied since 13 August. The system also brings considerable benefits to the environment by diverting this waste stream from Irish landfills, and ending the temptation to use unauthorised collectors of waste for old fridges, washing machines etc, a problem highlighted in the recent report of the Office of Environment Enforcement.

Visible environmental management costs are not imposed by or remitted to the Government. To describe environmental management costs as a tax, as has been done in some quarters, is wrong. Environmental management costs are, in fact, fixed by industry through the WEEE Register Society Limited, the industry-based national waste electrical and electronic equipment registration body, which has an independent committee of management. Visible environmental management costs fund the two collective compliance schemes operating in Ireland, WEEE Ireland and the European Recycling Platform, which have responsibility under the legislation for the environmentally sound management of all household waste electrical and electronic equipment taken back by retailers or deposited by members of the public at local authority civic amenity sites. WEEE Ireland and the European Recycling Platform are not-for-profit organisations. The visible environmental management costs are designed solely to cover the cost of recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment and none of the revenue involved is handled by the Government. The WEEE Register Society Limited will monitor the implementation of the scheme and adjust the visible environmental management costs periodically to ensure that the not-for-profit principle is observed.

There has been criticism in the House in the past over delays in transposing EU directives. We can take pride that Ireland was one of only a small number of member states which fully implemented this directive by the due date.