Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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332. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if concerns raised by a person (details supplied) in respect of the Government’s strategy on fast fashion will be addressed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21259/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy, published in September 2020, contains some 200 circular economy measures which will be delivered on a phased basis over the 5-year lifetime of the plan.  A number of specific measures address the need for more sustainable textile production and consumption practices, including measures to:- Develop separate collection framework proposals that take account of the potential global impacts of the international trade in used textiles and in consultation with existing collection operators.

- Ban textiles from the general waste bin, landfill and incineration.

- Promote eco-design for clothing and textiles in collaboration with Irish fashion designers and retailers.

- Support an education and awareness campaign around textiles as a theme of SDG 12 Sustainable Production and Consumption.

- Over the medium to long-term, examine the potential role of economic instruments (e.g. levies) on ‘fast fashion’ which could also support higher value indigenous producers by reducing the cost differential.

The Department will shortly be establishing an industry working group which will identify opportunities to capitalise on the value of post-consumer textiles and explore options to improve future circularity.

Deliberations of the working group will be informed by projects already underway or completed such as CRNI's "Circular Textiles" project funded under the EPA's Green Enterprise Grant Scheme (crni.ie/circular-textiles/) and a recently published EPA study on post-consumer textiles in Ireland (Nature-and-Extent-of-Post-Consumer-Textiles-in-Ireland---Study-Report.pdf (epa.ie))