Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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79. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the implementation process with regard to the deposit return scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62082/22]

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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In keeping with our Programme for Government commitment, the Government is introducing a deposit return scheme in Ireland in respect of plastic bottles and aluminium cans.

The Scheme will help ensure that we meet our legal obligations under the Single Use Plastics Directive to collect 90% of plastic bottles for recycling by 2029 and incorporate recycled plastic to a minimum of 30% in all new plastic bottles by 2030. We also expect to see a dramatic reduction in the littering of these items following the scheme’s introduction, in line with the experience of other countries.

The scheme places responsibility for the successful collection and recycling of the items on the producers who have placed these goods on the market. Those producers have now come together to form a company DRS Ireland CLG, trading as Re-turn, which is designing and rolling out the scheme.

On 1st July of this year, I granted approval to DRS Ireland as the approved body to operate a Deposit Return Scheme here under our national regulations.

More recently, on November 28th, I launched the registration phase of the Deposit Return Scheme for retailers and producers. I also announced the deposit levels to apply to the products within the scope of the scheme.

In brief, bottles and cans of 500 millilitres and less, will attract a deposit of 15 cent and larger bottles and cans will attract a higher deposit of 25c. In both instances, the deposit will be fully refundable to the consumer.

The national regulations set out how the scheme will operate and the protections available to retailers when accepting returned containers. Re-turn is responsible for determining the finer operational details of the scheme and is rolling out a major awareness and communications plan around deposit return. This will play a significant role in embedding the scheme with producers, retailers and consumers.

DRS is a major project involving the development of complex IT, infrastructure, and communication systems, which will be delivered by Re-turn over the course of 2023 with a 'go-live' date of February 2024.