The deposit return scheme is the scheme through which people pay extra for their drinks in bottles and cans, to be reclaimed afterwards from machines that are usually in supermarkets. It is described as a circular economy initiative. We are told it is about helping the environment. Why then is so much of the plastic that is collected needlessly shipped out of Ireland? There is a company in this State that can recycle the plastic. It is Shabra Plastics and Packaging, which is based in my constituency. It creates local employment, contributes to the Irish economy and provides an environmentally sound point to recycle the plastic collected in Ireland. Here is the scandal. By June this year 17,000 tonnes of plastic will have been collected under the scheme but only 3,400 tonnes of it will have been recycled in the State. This means that 88% of the plastic collected under what is called an environmental scheme is actually being shipped to locations throughout the world. Does the Tánaiste accept this is environmentally ludicrous and goes against the principle of the scheme? Will he, as Tánaiste, along with the Taoiseach knock whatever heads need to be knocked together to sort out this scandal?

I thank Deputy Carthy for raising this matter, and for providing me with the figures, which do seem quite extraordinary in terms of the amount of plastic being collected under the scheme that then has to be shipped out of the country. I do not profess to be an expert on the detail of this but I will ask the Minister for the environment to look at the specific issue raised by Deputy Carthy to see whether we can do more to build up capacity in this country.

The capacity is there.

I know but I will ask the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, to come back to Deputy Carthy on it.