Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I fully recognise the need to move away from our pervasive linear 'take-make-discard' model to a more circular one. My Department, and indeed Government as a whole, is working on a number of fronts to effect this transformation for businesses, consumers and our economy.

At EU level, negotiations are continuing on the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation which will build circularity - through inclusion of requirements such as reparability and reusability - into the design of products that we all use.

The 2nd iteration of the whole-of-Government Circular Economy Strategy is currently under development by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communication, as required under the Circular Economy Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022, which will contain a range of sectoral targets in relation to specified resource-intensive sectors. These targets will inform the development of future sectoral roadmaps/strategies. My Department will engage fully in the development of this strategy which will be submitted for Government approval, again following public consultation, before the end of this year.

To give a sector specific example, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, is preparing a Circular Construction Roadmap in conjunction with a subgroup of the Construction Sector Group. The Roadmap is intended to provide practical guidance to industry practitioners, highlight best practice examples of circular construction, and identify regulatory and financial measures which could support greater circularity. Improving the circularity rate of the highly resource intensive Construction & Demolition sector has significant potential to improve Ireland’s circularity rate as a whole. It is anticipated that the Roadmap will be submitted for Government approval, following public consultation, by end-2023.

The Deputy may be aware that Minister Coveney recently announced that my Department intends to hold several conferences around the country which will focus on decarbonisation and digitalisation and will showcase the government and agency supports available to small and medium enterprises. The first of these ‘Building Better Business’ conferences will be held in the North-West on Friday, 3rd March at the Letterkenny campus of the Atlantic Technological University (ATU) in Donegal. State agencies and organisations that provide training and supports will be in attendance to advise businesses as to the importance of embracing the circular economy as part of the their decarbonisation journeys. We will also use the conferences to continue to promote the 'Climate Toolkit 4 Business', which contains a number of recommended actions to encourage businesses to move to a more sustainable and circular business model.