Vol. 480 No. 6
105 Mr. Sargent asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when she will undertake the establishment of a paper recycling plant for Ireland in view of the cost of exporting post-consumer paper to such plants abroad and the low demand for Irish post-consumer paper due to the high cost of transportation. [14428/97]
Recycling paper plants will only be established in Ireland when they are shown to be a commercial proposition. On 4 February 1997, the then Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr. Richard Bruton, in a reply to Question No. 40 from the Deputy indicated that the cost of establishing a paper recycling plant is extremely high being in the region of £80 million. For that size of investment companies require a level of sales that implies substantial exports.
Forbairt on several occasions has provided support to companies to establish the feasibility of paper recycling projects but none of these have proved positive to date. I understand from Forbairt that in 1995 an Irish company examined the feasibility of establishing a paper recycling plant in Ireland to produce some of the paper required in the manufacture of corrugated cases. However, it has postponed a decision indefinitely for a variety of commercial reasons.
