I am happy not to.

Formal monitoring and reporting arrangements are in place to ensure that regular reports, both financial and performance, are received from Re-Turn, the scheme operator for Ireland's Deposit Return Scheme, DRS. DRS is a national infrastructure project which operates primarily on a return-to-retail model. Under the DRS regulations, retailers are required to charge customers a deposit for each bottle sold, to take back empty containers, unless exempt, and to refund the deposit to customers. Retailers are required to …

Those are all very reasonable questions. We are in the changeover period for this scheme. The changeover period is four months long. The reason there is a changeover period is so that the old stock on the shelves of the supermarkets can be sold off and at the same time the new stock which has the logos and the new bar codes is coming in. We could not change over overnight because that would have required dumping all the old stock. There would have been a lot of food waste so we had to pick a period of time for that…

As regards the number of cans and bottles that have been brought back, it is 1.8 million plastic bottles and 2 million cans. That is double what it was a few days ago, which shows the rate of increase. The Deputy asked how it works for people who are already putting bottles and cans into the recycle bin in their kitchen and the objective of the whole plan. The problem is that although approximately 60% of the bottles and cans were going back into those bins, approximately one in three were ending up in the landscap…

While the primary responsibility for management and enforcement responses to illegal dumping, including any decision to deploy CCTV and other technologies, lies with local authorities, my Department continues to provide extensive policy, financial and legislative support to the local authority sector to support its efforts. Almost €18 million has been provided to local authorities under the anti-dumping initiative since it was first introduced in 2017, including more than €2.8 million last year alone. This is to en…

I absolutely agree with the Deputy. I feel angry and ashamed when I see rubbish that has been dumped, often commercially for profit. We cannot reach those people through awareness campaigns. They know they are doing the wrong thing. The only way we can reach them is through gathering evidence that is admissible in court to obtain prosecution. We could not do that in the past because the challenge was that we were breaching their privacy. We needed primary legislation to deal with that. We now finally have that legi…

As the Deputy is aware, a licence from the national waste collection permit office in County Offaly is required in order to collect waste. If the terms of that licence are breached, steps can be taken. I will find out whether a vehicle can be seized and revert to the Deputy with that information. In the case of Castlegar, I urge people in the area to ask the local authority to put in CCTV-----

-----to catch those carrying out illegal dumping. In the case of commercial dumping, there are stronger powers for local authorities, in that they can use drones and bodycams. Many of those involved in this activity are dangerous criminals and it is difficult for local authority staff to approach them directly or gather the evidence. The dumping may be going on behind high fences. That is why drones are required. It is a serious offence. There is an extended producer responsibility, EPR, scheme for tyres. There is …

I propose to take Questions Nos. 91 and 93 together. The deposit return scheme was set up in such a way with the regulations published requiring that the scheme be accessible for all, so it is a legal requirement that participants in the scheme make sure their return point operations are accessible to everybody in the community. With that in mind, a set of suppliers was approved by Re-turn.ie so that these machines would be accessible. There was engagement with disability groups before the scheme went live. Since t…

In the case of people having their bottles and cans delivered to their homes, Re-Turn is engaging with the national Meals on Wheels network to find a way to return bottles and cans to people so they can get their money back. Regarding the accessibility of the machines, they should not be set at a height above 1.2 m to ensure people in wheelchairs can reach them. In terms of people who have a visual impairment, the machines should not require the use of a screen. In other words, they should be entirely usable withou…

I thank the Senator. I am interested to hear her proposal because I did not know what it was grounded on when I looked at it. I will consider it more now. The Senator said she is worried there will be an expectation that profit should be the sole motive of Gas Networks Ireland and that would be brought about because the Minister for Finance is concerned with money. I did not foresee the Senator's argument. Section 9(2) provides for the future majority-shareholding Minister in the event of a change from it being hel…

To confirm, are we debating amendment No. 2 at the same time as No. 1?

On amendment No. 1, it is not the case that Gas Networks Ireland would be legally allowed to focus solely on profit. It is subject to the climate Act. It is a named body so it must achieve the objectives set out in that Act, including the reduction in emissions and so on. It cannot solely focus on money. Under the new EU gas package, there is a new directive to be implemented and, as a result, Ireland is legally required to implement rules on the use of biomethane and hydrogen and the decarbonisation of our gas net…

I can say I am very unlikely to be able to get copies of letters of expectation for the Senator or to publish them. The code of practice for the governance of State bodies provides, in the case of commercial State bodies, for a shareholder letter of expectation that outlines the terms of the relationship with the parent Department. The shareholder letter of expectation contains commercially sensitive information and, as such, it would not be appropriate for it to be made publicly available. Again, I am not aware of…

I will request that information. I will see whether I can find out from the CRU or my Department how many data centres are seeking direct connection to the gas grid. It is a fair question. The approval I have from the Government for this legislation is simply for the integration of the current activities of Ervia into GNI. It does not provide for the board to engage in any new function or activity. As Senators are aware, Gas Networks Ireland is a semi-State public body. Its shares are 100% controlled by Government …

It is legally required to be consistent.

I appreciate Senator Boylan's raising of this issue and acknowledge that her amendment is an attempt to do something constructive. Neither I nor the Government wants data centres connecting directly to the gas grid. Clearly, the gas grid is almost pure fossil fuel at the moment, with only very small amounts of biomethane on it and we do not want data centres connecting directly to it. However, this Bill is not the correct mechanism for making sure that does not happen and this amendment would not have the right eff…

One of the main things I need to achieve with any legislation we pass is make sure it is legal and not challengeable. It is important that anything we do is non-discriminatory. If we tell Gas Networks Ireland that it cannot connect one customer but can connect another then the customer who was refused connection can legally challenge that. We have to decide what the connection policy for Gas Networks Ireland will be. Do we tell it that it is not allowed to connect anybody else to the grid? Do we tell it not to conn…

Senator Boylan asked what the difference is between putting in a moratorium on electricity connections for data centres and on gas connections for data centres. There is probably no difference but we do not have a moratorium on data centres being connected. It has become much harder and possibly nobody else is connecting at the moment but there is no national policy of a moratorium on data centres in Ireland.

It is much harder now to connect a data centre to the grid. I do not know if anybody has managed in the recent period of time to achieve a new data centre connection. There are a lot of new rules to do with asking data centres to be outside of Dublin and making sure they have sufficient backup and are entirely powered by renewable energy. In other words, rather than an outright moratorium, a lot of new conditions are attached.