Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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40. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if one hundred percent of Irish recyclables are processed in Ireland; if not, the percentage currently being processed. [22833/25]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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41. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if there is any other plants or countries that process recyclables from Ireland; if so, the percentage that is exported. [22835/25]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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42. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the body in place that checks the processing of recyclables at factory and plant level to ensure compliance with recycling regulations. [22836/25]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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43. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if there are any recyclables that cannot be processed in Ireland; if so, where or how do we deal with these products. [22837/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 40, 41, 42 and 43 together.

Ireland has a well-developed collection system of materials for recycling however, due to, for example, scale of the Irish market, in general these materials are sorted and bulked up for recycling abroad.

EU legislation targets materials such as packaging, electrical and electronic products, batteries, end-of-life vehicles to prioritise their safe and effective collection and management at end of life. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes are in place for each of these material streams to ensure this is managed and financed appropriately. Ireland’s EPR schemes which also include scheme for used tyres and farm plastics are described at www.gov.ie/en/department-of-the-environment-climate-and-communications/publications/extended-producer-responsibility-epr/. The annual reports of these schemes detail their recycling performance and are published on their respective websites.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the competent authority for the collation of national waste statistics and reports annually on Ireland’s performance against a range of European waste directive and regulations, as well as waste exports. These are used for reporting on Ireland’s performance in meeting its legal obligations, for policy and waste management planning purposes and to inform the general public. This data is available at the EPA website: www.epa.ie/our-services/monitoring--assessment/waste/national-waste-statistics/.