Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 May 2023
139. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he will provide an update on the roll-out of the deposit return scheme; the timeline for the development of the relevant IT, infrastructure and communication systems associated with the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21227/23]
View answerIn July 2022, I approved an application from Deposit Return Scheme Ireland CLG (trading as Re-turn) to act as the approved body for Ireland’s deposit return scheme (DRS) under the Separate Collection (Deposit Return Scheme) Regulations 2021.
Re-turn are responsible for all operational matters relating to DRS and, following the launch of the Scheme in November last year, have been working to ensure the necessary infrastructure and systems are in place prior to go-live on 1st February 2024.
Progress to date includes:
Registration for producers and retailers opened in November 2022;
Communications plan is underway for Business-to-Business engagement, targeting producers and retailers, with a Business-to-Consumer campaign to commence in Q4 2023;
Producer fees were published in January 2023;
Retailer handling fees were also published in January 2023, along with exemptions and a financial support package for small retailers;
Specification for reverse vending machines (RVM) and list of approved RVM suppliers was published in January 2023;
Draft planning exemption regulations for RVMs were published in April 2023; and
Contracts for an integrated IT system and for the collection, counting and processing of returned containers are in place.
