Under the End-of-Life Vehicles Directive, each Member State is required, inter alia, to ensure that all end-of-life vehicles are dismantled, treated and recovered at no cost to the final holder/owner of that vehicle and in a manner that does not cause environmental pollution.
The Waste Management (End-of-Life Vehicle) Regulations 2006 provide the regulatory framework for the implementation of the Directive in Ireland. Under the Regulations, a wide range of obligations are imposed on vehicle producers, authorised treatment facilities, vehicle owners and local authorities.
Certificates of Destruction are issued by authorised treatment facilities as prescribed in article 19 of the Regulations. These Regulations require that a Certificate of Destruction is issued on the deposit of a vehicle, falling within the scope of the regulations, at the authorised treatment facility concerned. Article 22(1)(a) of these Regulations also requires authorised treatment facilities to notify the Driver and Vehicle Computer Services Section of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport based in Shannon in County Clare of Certificates of Destruction issued. There is no payment recoverable by the operator of an authorised treatment facility from my Department or any agency operating under the aegis of my Department for issuing Certificates of Destruction.
Under article 9 of the Regulations, producers are required to establish national collection systems for the appropriate treatment and recovery of end-of-life vehicles of their particular brands. As a minimum and in accordance with the proximity principle, each producer’s national collection system is required to have at least one authorised treatment facility in each city and county council area that will provide free take-back for vehicles of that producer’s brand. In order to fulfil their obligations under this article, producers have entered into contractual agreements with authorised treatment facilities operating in the functional area of each local authority. Subject to compliance with all relevant provisions of the Regulations, it is a matter for producers and authorised treatment facilities alike to determine the financial conditions of such contracts. It should be further noted that given the current high value of scrap metal, there are very few end-of-life vehicles with a negative value at present.
An examination of all aspects of the end-of-life vehicle system is currently being conducted by my Department as part of a wide ranging review of the producer responsibility initiatives in operation in Ireland. This review will provide recommendations on how to improve the funding and reporting structures and environmental outputs of the end-of-life vehicle system in order to enable Ireland to operate successfully in meeting our domestic and EU environmental obligations in the medium to long term.
