Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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519. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the regulations in place governing the advertisement of environmental claims for products sold in Ireland; and for updates on any plans for new regulations (details supplied). [23205/25]

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive was adopted in February 2024 and will be transposed by officials in my Department by 27th March 2026.

The Directive is one of a package of initiatives set out at EU level and follows on from New Consumer Agenda, Circular Economy Action Plan and the European Green Deal, which itself has the ambition of zero emissions by 2050, making Europe the first climate neutral continent.

The Green Transition Directive supports and underpins the changes needed in consumer behaviour to help achieve climate and environmental aims. Of course, it cannot achieve these aims independently. It works in tandem with a number of instruments, including the Eco-Design Regulations and Right to Repair Directive, of which responsibility for both fall to my Department and the Green Claims Directive which falls to my colleague Minister Darragh O’Brien and his team within the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.

The aim of the Directive is twofold. Firstly, it will ensure consumers are provided with better information on the durability and repair of products before they buy them, at point of sale, and secondly, it will strengthen their protections against greenwashing and early obsolescence claims. It will achieve these aims through amendments to two existing pieces of consumer legislation, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and the Consumer Rights Directive.

There are different types of claims that producers and traders often make about the sustainable or environmental aspects of their products. The Green Transition Directive has defined these claims and set rules around their use, up to and including prohibiting them.

The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive currently lists a number of characteristics of a product about which consumers may not be given false information and that list has been expanded to explicitly include environmental characteristics, including circularity and recyclability.

It defines an environmental claim broadly, as any message or representation, which is not mandatory under either EU or national law, in any form and that includes text, graphics, symbols, labels, brand names, or company names, that as part of a commercial communication, states or implies that a product or trader has a positive impact or no impact on the environment or is less damaging to the environment than other products or traders, or has improved their impact over time.

Environmental claims relating to future environmental performance will be required to supported by verifiable commitments, an implementation plan and be regularly verified.

Those environmental claims relating to an entire product or a trader’s entire business when in fact it only applies to or concerns an aspect of it, are prohibited.

Generic environmental claims like use of the terms “eco-friendly”, “green”, “carbon-friendly”, “energy efficient” and such like, are prohibited unless they are proven to have recognised excellent environmental performance, gained through compliance with officially recognised ecolabelling schemes.

Sustainability labels are defined as voluntary marks that aim to set a product or process apart based on its environmental or social characteristics and under this Directive are prohibited, unless they are based on a certification scheme.

Claims based on the off-setting of greenhouse gas emissions through a neutral, reduced or positive impact on the environment are also prohibited.

The complementary Green Claims Directive under negotiation with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications will apply to voluntary explicit environmental claims and those not covered by other EU rules and regulations. It will bring in rules as to how claims are to be substantiated, verified and communicated to consumers.

Taken together, these changes aim to empower consumers to make informed, sustainable choices and in doing so, enable consumers to trust the information they are given about the environmental impacts of the products they are buying.

For business, this common approach for environmental claims across the EU will allow companies to compete on a level playing field and help boost the competitiveness of those traders who are genuinely working to increase the environmental sustainability of their products.

Regulation (EC) No. 1169/2011 or the Food Information to Consumers (FIC) Regulation sets the requirements for the information provided on food labelling. This Regulation provides for a high level of consumer protection, ensuring consumers are not misled and supporting them to make informed choices about the food they eat.

The Department of Health has policy and legislative responsibility for the FIC Regulation. The Regulation is enforced by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and its official agencies.

I look forward to the transparency these protections will bring to a subject matter that many consumers find confusing, vague and misleading.