Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 19: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the projected amount of funds to be collected in environmental management charges by the two collective schemes set up with respect to the regulations under the WEEE directive in the first year of the scheme; and when he expects the review of the environmental management charges with respect to the WEEE directive to be complete. [9596/06]

Bernard Allen (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 23: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the operation of the WEEE directive to date; if he intends to reduce any of the existing charges to consumers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9471/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 19 and 23 together.

The WEEE scheme has now been operating for almost six months and the real benefits of this new system for consumers and the environment are becoming apparent. WEEE is now being collected from over 180 collection points nationwide. Early indications are that significant quantities of this waste type are being returned for recycling. In the first 12 weeks alone 4,800 tonnes, equivalent to an annual rate of almost 20,000 tonnes, of household WEEE was collected. This points to a fourfold increase in the recycling of household WEEE as 5,510 tonnes of this waste type was recovered in 2004; and indicates widespread public support for the implementation of the directive.

The implementation of the directive has not had any negative impact on the consumer price index. This is confirmed by the CSO which recently reported that prices of major household appliances have decreased by 1.3% in the last 12 months and prices of small electrical household appliances have decreased by 0.5% over the same period.

The WEEE directive allows producers to show the cost of recovering and recycling "historic" waste, that is, waste arising from electric and electronic products put on the market before 13 August 2005. These costs are referred to as environmental management costs or EMCs. They are not imposed by, or remitted to, the Government, but are paid by producers to the two collective compliance schemes operating in Ireland, WEEE Ireland and the European Recycling Platform which are operating a producer responsibility initiative. Consequently, information on the revenue collected to date or on future projections is not available in my Department.

The EMCs currently applied show the costs of recycling based on data submitted by producers to the WEEE Register Society Limited, the industry-based national WEEE registration body, which has an independent committee of management. The WEEE register assessed and approved the EMCs. The EMCs are currently under review and while my Department has no function in the matter, I am advised that the WEEE register hopes to complete the review in April. It will be a matter for the WEEE register to validate any revisions.