Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 624: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he is satisfied that the system under which Repak is constituted and waste producers pay a fee to join is the best way to deal with the ever worsening waste crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30348/05]

Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 649: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the fees of Repak have increased by more than 20% in the past two years. [30576/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 624 and 649 together.

Ireland has a successful record in meeting EU targets for recovery of packaging waste. Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste is based on the principle of producer responsibility, which is intended to require producers to contribute to the waste management costs of products which they have placed on the market at end-of-life. Under the directive, Ireland was required to achieve a 25% recovery rate of packaging waste by 1 July 2001, increasing to a 50% recovery rate by 31 December 2005, with a minimum of 25% to be achieved by recycling, including a minimum 15% recycling rate for each type of packaging material. The directive is transposed into national legislation by the Waste Management (Packaging) Regulations 2003, as amended, which replaced earlier regulations introduced in 1997.

Under the regulations, major producers of packaging waste — that is, manufacturers, importers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers, representing all participants in the packaging chain, who place more than 25 tonnes of packaging on the market each year and who have an annual turnover exceeding €1 million excluding VAT — are required to take steps individually to recover their packaging waste, that is, self-compliance, or alternatively to contribute to, and participate in, compliance schemes set up to recover packaging waste.

Repak Limited was established by Irish industry in 1997 as a not-for-profit organisation to promote, co-ordinate and finance the collection and recovery of packaging waste with a view to achieving Ireland's packaging waste recovery and recycling targets under the directive and is the only such approved compliance scheme in Ireland. Repak membership income is used to subsidise the collection of packaging waste from both the household and commercial sectors. In the household sector, subsidy is provided towards the collection of packaging waste from bring banks and civic amenity recycling centres, as well as segregated kerbside collection of packaging waste from households. More than 560,000 households, approximately 42% of all households nationally, are now served by segregated collection.

Repak has reported consistent progress since 1997 and in 2001 Ireland met the 25% packaging waste recovery target required by the directive. The EPA has reported in its National Waste Database Interim Report for 2003, published in December 2004, that packaging waste recovery has increased to an estimated 42% in that year, indicating that Ireland is on course to meet the higher recovery and recycling targets for end 2005.

The significant increase in packaging waste collected for recycling in recent years to meet the higher targets for 2005 required under the directive has resulted in increased subsidy payments by Repak to waste collectors. In light of this, Repak has increased its membership fees by an average of 7% in 2004 and an average of 19% in 2005. The setting of Repak membership rules and associated membership fees are a matter for the board of Repak and its senior management.