Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)
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126. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if there are requirements for a regular review of the operations or scope of the deposit return scheme; if he plans to review the materials that are within the scope of the deposit return scheme; if so, when will the first review be conducted; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48292/25]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Provisions relating to review of the operation and scope of the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) are set down in the Separate Collection (Deposit Return Scheme) Regulations (S.I. No. 33 of 2024). Specifically, Regulation 7 provides for a review of Re-turn's approval by the end of the second quarter of the third year after the grant of approval and by the end of the second quarter of each third year following and Regulation 8 provides for a review in other specified circumstances such as, for example, revised recycling targets. The approval was granted in July 2022 which means the first approval review was undertaken this year and is currently being considered. The next review scheduled under Regulation is due in 2028 and every third year over the 10-year lifetime of the approval.

The regulations also require Re-turn, in its role as an approved body under the scheme, to "advise the Minister of any developments in the area of waste management which in the opinion of the approved body could improve the effectiveness of the scheme including the potential future benefits of such a scheme for other materials and new waste collection methodologies." To date, the company has not advised of such developments.

While demonstrating strong performance, the scheme is still in its establishment phase. Until the targets required of Ireland for the separate collection and recycling of plastic bottles under the Single Use Plastics Directive are met, those materials remain the priority focus for the scheme.