Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 561: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if there is any grant aid available to a person who wishes to recycle old paint and other such material; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26801/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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There is no grant assistance available for private sector recycling projects.

When the capital grants scheme for waste management infrastructure projects was launched in 2002 it was intended that it be made available to both public and private sector applicants. However, private sector funding was conditional on obtaining the necessary State aid approval from the European Commission.

In the event the State aid approval given was of a limited nature. Also, in the interim, private waste industry's scale increased very significantly over a short period of time, a marked process of consolidation became evident and some of the projects for which grant applications had been submitted proceeded in any case.

It became clear, therefore, that a grant scheme for private companies would be more likely to distort competition in the sector or to impact on enhancing acquisition values in the context of industry consolidation, than to have a significant effect on the provision of recycling and recovery infrastructure. On foot of this, my predecessor decided that it would be more effective to redeploy the funding in question to other related initiatives and in particular towards greater enforcement of waste legislation. The latter measure had been strongly advocated by the industry, to address the problem of unfair competition from contractors operating outside the law.