Vol. 431 No. 1
17 Mr. M. McDowell asked the Minister for the Environment his views on whether the polluter pays principle should apply rigorously to waste issues; and his views on whether the £70-£100 million subsidy, estimated by the recent Environmental Resources Limited report to be required to facilitate even a modest level of recycling in Ireland, should be funded through a levy on producers and consumers of waste-generating products rather than on the taxpayer.
, Wexford): The polluter pays principle is a fundamental tenet of both national and EC environment policy and has been explicitly incorporated into the Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1992. The principle is also established in existing Irish law and policy on waste which provides that waste producers are primarily responsible for disposing of their wastes.
There is, however, considerable scope for greater application of the polluter pays principle in the waste area through pricing and other economic instruments. In this connection, the recently published recycling strategy study examines a wide range of options, including policy instruments employed with varying degrees of success in other countries. It identifies some 14 possible policy instruments, including product and raw material taxes, together with an analysis of advantages and disadvantages.
The issues raised by the study, including that of the incidence of cost, are complex ones and I have asked industrial, local authority, consumer and environmental interests for their views as a first step in the formulation of a comprehensive national strategy for recycling.
