Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 207: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his attention has been drawn, in relation to businesses and competitiveness, to the effect the new landfill tax will have on the private sector and particularly for small businesses here; and his plans to alleviate the costs in relation to these small businesses. [8538/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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I am not proposing to introduce a new tax or levy as the existing landfill levy has been in place since 2002. I have announced my intention to increase, by 31 March 2008, the levy from €15 per tonne to €20 per tonne for waste legally deposited, and €20 per tonne to €25 per tonne for waste illegally deposited. Landfill gate fees have fallen dramatically in recent years and this factor is impacting on the necessary diversion of biodegradable municipal waste from landfill. The practice of deploying economic instruments such as landfill taxes as economic drivers to promote recycling and diversion of waste from landfill is widespread in the EU. In the recently published National Waste Report for 2006, the EPA identified a number of policy instruments, including increased landfill levies, that could help increase the diversion rate of biodegradable waste from landfill and assist in the efforts to meet the very challenging diversion targets set for this waste stream in the EU Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC).

As the levy applies only to waste going to landfill, the proposed increase will encourage all sectors of society, including small businesses, to maximise their recycling and recovery of waste. An increase in recycling rates by small businesses may lead to an actual reduction in their overall waste costs. Therefore I do not consider it necessary to introduce any special measures to offset the potential additional costs of small businesses.

The landfill levy generates income for the Environment Fund that can be used for a range of environmentally beneficial purposes, including improved enforcement measures, grant aid of local authority recycling infrastructure and assistance towards the costs of remediation of closed or so called 'legacy' landfills. This increase will allow further support for local authority recycling infrastructure to assist acceleration in recycling activity which will, in turn, contribute to meeting the landfill diversion targets.