Recycling Policy
Dail Éireann — 2025-09-18
============================================================

Alan Dillon (FG), Mayo

I reassure the House that the unredeemed deposits are a normal and expected feature of deposit return schemes internationally. As of the end of 2024, €320 million had been refunded to consumers with €66 million remaining unclaimed. This is not a failure. It reflects the early phases of the scheme but it also will naturally reduce as we move forward towards our EU targets of 90% redemption. Importantly, these funds do not sit idle. Re-turn itself is a not-for-profit organisation.
They are being reinvested into the scheme. If we look at the 23% VAT liability, repaying initial start-up costs, expanding reverse vending machines, infrastructure, funding, educational campaigns and contributing to other contingency measures, the reinvestment is essential as part of the scheme. Will we see a reduction in that year on year. The Department is satisfied. It is under appropriate regulatory and administrative controls and we review it on annual basis.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-09-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:00:58+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-09-18