Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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54. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the measures his Department is taking to tackle textile waste. [41392/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Our consumption of textiles and our generation of textile waste in Ireland are unsustainable at current rates. This is a complex problem with local and global impact that requires a range of interventions by many actors. Tackling textile waste is a key priority of the National Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy and a Focus Area under the Local Authorities' National Waste Management Plan.

My Department is delivering on a number of measures currently.

In 2022, I established a Textile Advisory Group with a membership including industry, regulators and charities. That group has been invaluable in achieving a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities ahead. The Advisory Group has made a number of recommendations to me and these will shape our first National Policy Statement on Textiles. A draft statement will open for public consultation in the coming weeks.

Also this year, in recognition of the need for better data, I commissioned a study on post-consumer textiles in Ireland. A report on that study is due this month.

In 2023, the European Commission proposed the introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for textiles. Negotiations are continuing and I expect agreement will be reached soon. In anticipation, my Department hosted a webinar on EPR in July and in November a workshop will help identify key principles of an Irish EPR.

Just last week I launched our first public awareness campaign on textiles, called 'Reverse the Trend'. The social media-focused campaign encourages the young target audience to 'buy less, share and re-wear' and will run until December.

I recognise that we face a number of short and longer term challenges in this sector. Textiles policy has emerged relatively recently as a focus at EU and national level and while substantial policy progress has been made, a lot remains for us to do to prevent waste arising in the first place and to manage post-use textiles responsibly.