I ask Members to be fair to their colleagues. I call Deputy Alan Farrell.

I raise the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, report published yesterday, the National Waste Statistics Summary Report for 2020. It shows that waste generation in Ireland continues to increase and that our rising levels of waste make it very difficult for us to maintain or increase our current recycling rates. Crucially, it shows we are in danger of missing our EU 2025 targets for municipal waste and plastic packaging recycling targets. Ireland remains reliant on the export market to deal with the vast majority of waste generated in this country, including residual municipal waste, hazardous waste, plastic waste and, more recently, biowaste.

In light of the passage of the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022, what measures will the Government take to plan for an improvement in the figures outlined by the EPA? Will the Government give a commitment to raise public awareness of the circular economy?

I thank the Deputy for raising this pertinent question. The 2020 data that have been published outline that Ireland must transition to a more sustainable circular economy. This is something the Government recognised and actioned before the announcement of these figures. Under the recently published Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022, Ireland will be able to drive behavioural change, provide a financial incentive for alternative treatment options and improve source segregation of our materials to create our circular economy. Proposed regulatory changes include the extension of incentivised pricing to commercial waste and the introduction of a waste recovery levy applying to operations at landfills and incineration plants and to exports of municipal solid waste. We continue to achieve all EU packaging recycling targets for 2020 and the Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy 2020 sets out our approach. If one goes back over a 20- to 30-year period, Ireland has made rapid progress but one gets the sense it has stalled a bit. The population is rising. The new legislation will give us the impetus to move forward.