My Department has been actively engaged with the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, SIMI, the Irish Motor Vehicle Recyclers Association, IMVRA, the Metal Recyclers Association of Ireland, MRAI, and other concerned parties with a view to developing a producer responsibility initiative to implement the main provisions of European Parliament and Council Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles, ELVs. A particular objective of the directive is to ensure that all ELVs are collected, dismantled and recovered by industry in an environmentally sound manner at no cost to the final holder. The directive further requires that a system for the issue of certificates of destruction in respect of scrapped vehicles be introduced.
These stakeholder bodies submitted an agreed initial proposal for an ELV management scheme to my Department just over a year ago. This replaced earlier proposals by SIMI alone. Consultants were since engaged by the stakeholders to assist in the development of the agreed initial proposals and agreement in principle has been reached on the operation of an appropriate ELV recovery scheme that will fulfil the main requirements of the directive. Discussions with the stakeholders in relation to operational details relating to the introduction of the proposed ELV recovery scheme are ongoing.
I am preparing appropriate legislative proposals which will be brought to Government shortly to support implementation of the detailed ELV recovery scheme consistent with the requirements of the directive. The implementation of the directive in Ireland, which provides for the free take-back of ELVs by the final holder to authorised treatment facilities, should result in a decrease in the number of ELVs being abandoned, thereby reducing their availability for anti-social purposes.