Committee Debate | Circular Economy, Waste Management (Amendment) and Minerals Development (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage

My amendment No. 51 is about the right to repair, and specifically around diagnosis, maintenance and repair of electronic equipment. The amendment, which I submitted for the Labour Party, forms the basis of a Bill we were preparing to bring forward, that we say is an integral part of any sort of circular economy approach. We are hopeful that the Minister of State might agree to it in principle, or agree to look at it between now and Report Stage. I do not intend to press this amendment. I will withdraw the amendment when we come to it, and I have emailed to say that if I am not physically present that it might be withdrawn with a view to bringing it back on Report Stage.

We feel that this is a very important part of a circular economy approach, and that it would offer consumers a really tangible, meaningful, and practical application of the circular economy. All of us are very familiar with that awful feeling when we break a phone and cannot get it fixed with a local independent repair shop without losing the warranty. I use phones as one example but all of us are familiar with other instances of this. Our amendment, in a very detailed fashion, seeks to address the imbalance of power between the consumer and the manufacturer. Manufacturers are currently holding consumers over a barrel on these warranties. While we want to put more work in the way of the local independent repair shops it is also hugely important as a way of ensuring that we do not see the wastage of digital electronic equipment that currently goes on when it breaks, and that we would see a genuinely circular approach where equipment can be repaired, parts can be replaced, and we can continue as consumers to have our warranties. I am grateful to Karlin Lillington in The Irish Times who first drew my attention to the measures that have been introduced in the US on this, where a lot more has been done on the right to repair, and specifically of digital electronic equipment.

It is on that basis that we produced this very detailed and comprehensive amendment and we would really like to engage with the Minister of State and his officials on how the principle behind it could be brought into effect in a very tangible way to enable consumers to see how the circular economy can work in their favour.

Deputy Ossian Smyth

On the right to repair, it is really important that we can repair goods. What does the right to repair mean? It means having access to product manuals, parts, the information on how to fix something and the relevant software. It also comes down to the design of the product. For example, with a mobile phone that has been glued together, with the battery glued to the case, it is much harder to change the battery than with a the phone that is screwed together.

How does one know before one buys a product how repairable or durable it is? Deputy Bacik referred to an information imbalance between the corporate sector and the person buying the product and that has to be corrected. The work that is being done on this at EU level, in which I have participated at the Council of Ministers, is critical. The next stage in that work is going to be negotiation between member states at the Council and the result of that will be a new eco design directive. I would expect that in a future where there is a right to repair, when people go into a shop they will see a rating on products showing their repairability and durability in the same way that they see an energy rating on white goods at the moment, which was the result of the previous eco design directive. People will be able to see whether the product can be repaired and they will have an absolute right to manuals, parts and so on.

While I am very keen that all of that works, this work is happening at an EU level and whatever is done there will then be transposed into Irish law. I hope I am here to do that when it happens but I am not planning to put a different right to repair into Irish law before we get there. Repair cafés are a part of that and also men's sheds which were referenced by Deputies O'Rourke and Cronin in an earlier amendment. These are places where people share knowledge on how to fix things and are a critical part of the circular economy. Our circular economy strategy recognises this and commits to a circular economy for consumer goods, with a focus on the repair sector and helping traditional tradespeople like shoemakers, tailors and so on to succeed in the future. We are talking about a return to the types of industries that were around in our parents' and grandparents' era. I am not going to accept these amendments given the work being done at EU level. A new regulation on eco design is likely to come through shortly and a proposal for a directive to empower consumers for a green transition through better protection against unfair practices and better information, which will address the information imbalance between the seller and the buyer. With that in mind, I am rejecting these amendments but will be working on them at EU level instead.

Deputy Darren O'Rourke

On the basis of what the Minister of State has said, I will be withdrawing amendment No. 25 with a view to having ongoing discussions on these issues before Report Stage. I thank the Minister of State for his response. It would be important, beyond the introduction of this Bill and when we see what happens at EU level, that the Minister of State continues to engage with the Opposition and others to try to address these issues in an Irish context.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

I thank the Minister of State for his response and for acknowledging the information and power imbalance between consumers and manufacturers that the right to repair principle seeks to address. As he said, it is a critical part of any circular economy approach. We had an exchange previously in the Dáil Chamber and the Minister of State referred then to ongoing developments at EU level and I was very conscious of that in drafting our amendment. However, also being conscious of how slowly things can move at EU level and the fact that there is not, as I understand it, even a draft of the directive yet, I would argue that it is time for us to move more swiftly and to be ahead of the curve. Given that the Minister of State and officials from Ireland have been engaged at EU level in considering how the European-wide approach is going to be framed in law, I would argue that we could do something here that paves the way for the introduction of the EU directive elsewhere and that makes us leaders on a circular economy and a right to repair approach. I will be withdrawing this amendment at this point but I do want to bring it back on Report Stage to have a further discussion. Indeed, we may wish to tweak it, in light of ongoing EU developments. I join Deputy O'Rourke in asking that there would be engagement with the Opposition on developments here because we all have the same motivation, to ensure that there is a genuine and effective right to repair for consumers, not just for digital electronic equipment, although that is clearly a priority, but also across the circular economy more generally.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.