The Green Party today slammed Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil for blocking Senator Grace O’Sullivan’s Seanad bill to ban the manufacture and sale of microbeads in Ireland.
Senator O’Sullivan said today that both parties were putting political games above environmental protection – and allowing continued damage to the environment and marine life in the meantime.
Speaking ahead of the debate in the Seanad, Senator O’Sullivan said: “I’m extremely disappointed that our bill to ban microbeads and monitor the flow of microplastics into our rivers, lakes and seas has been stopped by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. These plastics are doing untold damage to our marine environment and wildlife. The health effects are as yet unknown, but there is growing concern across Europe.
“This bill was to be a straightforward, simple bill to protect the environment. There has been ample opportunity for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to work with us to amend the bill if they had concerns or suggestions to improve it. They chose instead to torpedo the bill at the 11th hour, with excuses which are flimsy, at best. So much for new politics.
“Fine Gael are claiming that this bill will contravene EU law, citing the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). This is just blatantly untrue. Perhaps they stopped reading at Article 35, but Article 36 clearly states that single market regulations do not prevent bans or restrictions on sales on the grounds of the protection of health and life of humans, animals or plants. Other EU jurisdictions such as the UK and the Netherlands are introducing such a ban, with the support of the EU.
“The truth of the matter here is that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are vetoing this bill because they don’t want it passing if they can’t get the credit for it. They will facilitate the continued destruction of the marine environment to score some political points down the line. As an environmental activist, and someone who recently entered politics to effect change this is profoundly disappointing to me.”