Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 March 2019
422. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment further to Parliamentary Question No. 499 of 26 February 2019, if his attention has been drawn to a perceived anomaly in the response concerned (details supplied); he will retract his previous response; and the reason Ireland did not object to the position of the council of delaying the 90% separate collection target by five years. [10594/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Commission document published on 28 May 2018 contained a 90% collection rate for plastic bottles by 2025, as pointed out by the Deputy. However, this changed very early on during negotiations between Member States in the Council to 2030, which became the de facto working date for negotiations. The Deputy will be well aware that negotiations such as these can be both difficult and sensitive. This is particularly true of this proposal which was supported by all Member States and led to negotiations being concluded quickly. That said, some Member States, of which Ireland was not one, indicated that the target of 90% by 2025 was unworkable. Ireland was of the view throughout that the ambition of the Directive had to be achievable by all Member States in order to be effective. It was also important that the Directive would be acceptable to and agreed by all Member States as a priority so that a new collection rate target for plastic bottles would be agreed and would deliver tangible results for European citizens before the end of the term of the current European Parliament and Commission.
In that context, I was pleased to see that both a political agreement was achieved by the Member States and the European Parliament before the end of 2018 and also that the collection target has been brought forward from 2030 to 2029, as indicated in my response to Question No 499 of 2019. I recently commissioned a national study to assess how Ireland can achieve this target as soon as possible.
