Bill to change plastic bag levy will be 'flexible' - Gormley

LEGISLATION TO change the plastic bag levy will be “flexible” and will take account of the consumer price index, according to Minister for the Environment John Gormley.

Last month he announced that legislation will be introduced to double the levy from 22 cent to 44 cent, because plastic bag usage is rising despite the financial deterrent.

The levy, introduced in 2002, at a rate of 15 cent a bag, resulted in a “dramatic reduction” in usage from 328 bags per person every year to 21 bags.

By June 2007, however, usage gradually increased to about 33 bags per person and the levy was increased by 7 cent to 22 cent, from July that year, Mr Gormley said.

This worked briefly and consumption dropped to 26 bags per person for the next six months but rose again to 27 bags for 2008.

The Minister has insisted that the aim of the levy “is not to generate revenue but to change consumer behaviour and achieve a significant reduction in the consumption of plastic bags dispensed at retail outlets”. Nonetheless since it was first introduced seven years ago it has generated more than €120 million for the exchequer.

The new legislation will be published this month and enacted by the end of the year.

Wexford Fine Gael TD, Paul Kehoe, has expressed concern at the impact of the new increase on retailers and suppliers. He asked the Minister about the “possible negative business consequences for packaging suppliers of a short lead time for the introduction of a 100 per cent increase on the retail price of plastic bags” since suppliers “already have considerable stocks of branded bags on site and will face considerable difficulties for their businesses in absorbing the very devaluation of this stock”.

Mr Gormley told the TD in a reply to a written parliamentary question that the 22 cent tax “was not successful in bringing plastic bag usage back to the level achieved when the levy was introduced in 2002”.