President Juncker, in his State of the Union address last week, made it clear that the European Commission and Parliament will pass plastics legislation that will help people to stop wasting single use plastics. The legislation mirrors the Waste Reduction Bill the Green Party introduced more than a year ago. Our committee had to write to the President of the European Commission and the European Council to say that the Government has no intention of dealing with plastics in the immediate term. Those bodies will not be surprised, because we do not do environmental legislation. What is the Taoiseach fearful of? He should allow a Committee Stage debate on the Waste Reduction Bill. The rest of the House wants to debate this issue. It could set out the approach we will take and give the Government or any future Government time to introduce it. Why is the Taoiseach fearful of such a debate? Why is he spinning the issue, telling people on Twitter that they have to do the right thing with plastics but taking no action to make it easier for people to do that? Will he allow Committee Stage debate on the Waste Reduction Bill?

I have explained the reasons the Government, and the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, in particular, have a problem with the Bill proposed by the Deputy. It is not the case that we do not do environmental legislation. We have passed legislation in this House to divest the State from investing in hydrocarbons and similar types of investment, while legislation on microbeads appears on the priority list for this session.