Go raibh maith agat as an seans a thabhairt dom an ceist thabhachtach sea a árdú, agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an Aire as teacht anseo chun é a fhreagairt.
The Minister will be aware that the EU Commission has seen fit to take legal action against Ireland on the basis of non-compliance with Directives 75/442/EEC, 91/689/EEC and 94/62/EEC, the latter being on packaging waste. I am surprised that action has not been taken on a number of others, including the batteries directive, 91/157/EEC, given that these batteries, which I have in my hand, these little time bombs, are not disposable anywhere except in a dump in most of Ireland, except in Leinster House where they are collected. However, that is not accessible to everybody in the country.
Nobody is saying the Minister's job is easy, but as Minister with responsibility for waste, it is critical for the well-being of people, environment and business here that we all get together and make the difference in reducing waste. The primary aim is to minimise waste, but we are increasing it by over 4% each year. That is the first failure and that goes right back to the Department.
The reality is that the Minister is operating, through the Waste Management Act, a policy of regional integrated planning. There is a role for regional planning, but I would suggest, as helpfully as I can, that the plan falls down in that it says in section 22(3) that two or more local authorities may, in lieu of each of them making a waste management plan, jointly make a plan. However, if each local authority does not have to make a plan, there is a temptation to pass the buck, and that is what is happening.
As a result we see articles like the one in Foinse entitled “Plean Dramhaíola caite sa bhruscar” agus tá neart altanna mar sin ar fud na h-áite na laethanta seo. I am serious and trying to be constructive and helpful in suggesting that we go back to this issue of local responsibility for waste, rather than leaving it to a region which results, for example, in a situation where areas in my constituency in Dublin North, which are currently flooded, are designated for the location of dumps or a single dump for the whole region. We must change our waste plan and our Waste Management Act.
The powers of the Minister are clearly stated in the Act, and they are wide-ranging. The include prohibiting, limiting or controlling waste, controlling its production or use, prohibiting the composition, production, importation, distribution, supply, sale, disposal or advertising of any product or substance, and even prohibiting the production of waste and requiring that packaging be designed, produced and used so as to be capable of being re-used. All those wonderful powers are being read by people who do not see it happening.
Companies like Wellman International in County Meath, the Minister's constituency, recycles 3.5 million PEP plastic bottles per day. They are not getting those PEP bottles from Ireland but from all around Europe and they are crying out for deposits to be put on those containers, as with many other containers. When Glanbia did away with its glass bottle bank, I did not hear the Minister protest or require that it comply with the relevant Act, which would have prohibited the closure of those plants and required glass bottles to be used more widely, as they are in Cork.
Many options and models are available to the Minister. I direct him to initially consider the zero waste strategies in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The Guelph system operated in Canada is a wet-dry system where not only 60% or 70% of waste but all waste is brought to a wet-dry waste collection point. I have a cutting from Guelph in Canada, which states it is a dirty job but workers appear to enjoy themselves at the waste facility. Since 1995 it has successfully diverted more than 70%—
