Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 55: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will arrange with local authorities for collection points to be set up to allow householders to deposit waste electrical items free of charge; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36624/05]

Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 56: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the progress to date in 2005 on implementing the requirement of the WEEE directive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36623/05]

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 115: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he has satisfied himself that WEEE charges are being paid for by the manufacturer or retailer rather than the consumer. [36681/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 55, 56 and 115 together.

Every consumer can now deposit waste electrical and electronic equipment free of charge. If a new item is being purchased, the retailer must accept an equivalent waste item on a one-for-one basis. Alternatively, items can be brought to the local civic amenity site. These facilities for consumers arise from the implementation, from 13 August 2005 onwards, of the EU directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment, WEEE, which required each member state to introduce regulations providing for a producer funded take-back scheme.

Implementation of the directive involved the establishment of three new structures: two compliance schemes to fund the recovery of the waste equipment, WEEE Ireland limited and the European Recycling Platform, ERP; and an independent national producer registration body, WEEE register, whose job it is to register all producers of electronic and electrical equipment, determine market share and approve visible environmental management costs, EMCs, where these are displayed by producers. More than 640 producers have registered to date with WEEE register and it is estimated that in the first 12 weeks of implementation, approximately 4,600 tonnes of WEEE has been collected.

Local authority civic amenity facilities now accept all items of WEEE, within the scope of the directive, from householders free of charge. The latest figures collated by my Department show that there were 64 local authority civic amenity sites in operation throughout the country at the end of 2004 and a further five are understood to have opened to date during 2005. Some 39 of these civic amenity sites have been part funded through the waste infrastructure capital grants scheme, which is designed to assist local authorities in the provision of recycling and recovery infrastructure. Funding has been committed to another 17 facilities which are being developed at present. Some are at a more advanced stage than others. In considering further civic amenity facilities for grant assistance in the last round, I gave priority to those providing facilities for the collection of WEEE. A further 40 projects are under consideration by the Department, some of which are still at a very preliminary stage.

While the funding of such take-back schemes is a producer responsibility, the directive allows producers for a transitional period of eight years — ten years for large household appliances — to show purchasers, at the time of sale of new products, the costs of recovery and recycling of "historic" waste, which was put on the market before 13 August 2005. While there were varying opinions on how the provisions regarding the historic waste should operate, the majority view among the industry and the independent retail sector, for reasons of fuller transparency and greater accountability, favoured a system of visible EMCs in the manner which has been provided for under the regulations. 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. It also ensures traceability and financial accountability and, by informing the public in an open way, ensures that profiteering is prevented.

Visible EMCs are designed solely to cover the cost of recycling of WEEE. None of the revenue involved is handled by the Government. The WEEE register society limited — the industry-based national WEEE registration body — will monitor the implementation of the scheme and adjust the visible EMCs periodically to ensure that the not-for-profit principle is observed. Producers pay the appropriate EMCs into the producer recycling funds operated by the two approved collective compliance schemes operating in Ireland; WEEE Ireland and ERP. Visible EMCs are input costs and how these are dealt with in the pricing of products is part of the normal negotiations between producer and retailer. Market forces determine whether increases in any input costs, whether it is in respect of EMCs, raw materials, transport etc., are absorbed or passed on.

The new regime represents good value for money. The public can either dispose of this waste on a one-for-one basis or bring it to their local civic amenity site free of charge and this represents a considerable saving to them compared to previous waste disposal costs. It provides a "cradle-to-grave" system for the management of WEEE. While there has been criticism in this House in the past over delays in transposing EU directives, it is creditable in this case that Ireland is one of only a small number of member states which have fully implemented this directive by the due date. My Department is monitoring the operation of the scheme closely and where barriers to effective implementation are identified, these will be addressed.