Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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151. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will reconsider the removal of the exemption for burning green waste and open a consultation with farmers and their representative organisations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10947/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Under the Waste Management (Prohibition of Waste Disposal by Burning) Regulations 2009, the burning of household, garden, commercial or industrial waste is not permitted. The burning of green waste is a matter of concern and leads to localised air pollution. More broadly, health problems associated with air pollution are widely known and acknowledged. An exemption under the legislation had been provided for the burning of green waste generated by agricultural purposes for the last number of years. Regulations to extend the exemption until 1^stJanuary 2023 were published on 11th  February last. I anticipate this will be the final extension. 

Discussions between officials from my Department and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine will shortly commence – to examine alternative options to the practice of burning of this waste.