Waste Management (Amendment) Act, 2001

Power to impose environmental levy.

9.—The following section is inserted after section 71 of the Act of 1996:

“72.—(1) In this section—

‘consumer price index number’ means the All Items Consumer Price Index Number complied by the Central Statistics Office and references to the consumer price index number relevant to any financial year are references to the consumer price index number at such date in that year as is determined by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance;

‘plastic bag’ means a bag—

(a) made wholly or in part of plastic, and

(b) which is suitable for use by a customer at the point of sale in a supermarket, service station or other sales outlet,

other than a bag which falls within a class of bag specified in regulations under subsection (2) as being a class of bag excepted from this definition.

(2) The Minister may, with the consent of the Government, make regulations providing that there shall be chargeable, leviable and payable a levy (which shall be known as an ‘environmental levy’ and is in this section referred to as the ‘levy’) in respect of the supply to customers, at the point of sale to them of the goods or products to be placed in the bags, or otherwise of plastic bags in or at a specified class or classes of supermarket, service station or other sales outlet.

(3) The amount of the levy shall be specified in the regulations under subsection (2) but shall not exceed an amount of 15p, or, in the case of levy payable on or after 1 January, 2002, 19 cents, for each plastic bag supplied to a customer.

(4) The levy shall be payable by the person who carries on the business of selling goods or products in or at the supermarket, service station or sales outlet concerned or, if two or more persons each carry on such a business in or at the particular premises, whichever of them causes to be made the particular supply of plastic bags concerned.

(5) Regulations under subsection (2) shall provide for the following matters—

(a) the specification of the person or persons to whom the levy shall be payable (who or each of whom is referred to in this section as a ‘collection authority’),

(b) the conferral of powers on a collection authority with respect to the collection and recovery of the levy (and, for this purpose, the regulations may adapt, with or without modifications, the provisions of any enactment relating to the estimation, collection and recovery of, or the inspection of records or the furnishing of information in relation to, any tax charged or imposed by that enactment).

(6) Regulations under subsection (2) may provide for all or any of the following matters—

(a) specifying the times at which payment of the levy shall be made and the form of such payment,

(b) requiring the notification to a collection authority by a person who carries on a business of the kind referred to in subsection (4) (being a business that involves the supply of plastic bags to customers in the circumstances mentioned in subsection (2)) of that fact,

(c) requiring specified records to be kept by a person referred to in subsection (4) in respect of matters connected with liability to pay levy and specifying the form of such records,

(d) requiring the furnishing of such records and other specified information relating to liability as aforesaid at specified intervals to a collection authority and specifying the manner in which such records and information shall be so furnished,

(e) requiring specified notices at the time of a specified act being done that involves a plastic bag to be given, in a specified manner and in a specified form, of the fact that the levy is payable (whether in relation to that act or a previous such act),

(f) specifying a class of bag to be a class of bag excepted from the definition of plastic bag in subsection (1) (and such specification shall be made by reference only to the bag's size, composition or intended use or any combination of those matters),

(g) providing for exemptions in specified circumstances from the liability to pay the levy,

(h) enabling the payment of the levy by specified persons to be deferred in specified circumstances,

(i) requiring specified records and accounts to be kept by collection authorities in respect of levy paid or payable to them,

(j) enabling the refund of payments of levy to be made to specified persons in specified circumstances,

(k) enabling a collection authority to enter into arrangements with one or more specified persons whereby that person or those persons, by means of a scheme carried out by the person or persons for the discharge of the liabilities of others participating in the scheme in respect of levy, collect amounts due in respect of levy and remit them to the collection authority in consideration of the payment of specified sums by the authority to that person or persons,

(l) providing for the payment into the Environment Fund by collection authorities of amounts received by them on account of levy (subject to the deduction from such amounts of any amounts specified as being capable of being deducted therefrom for the purpose of defraying expenses incurred by collection authorities in collecting or recovering the levy),

(m) any matters consequential on, or incidental to, the foregoing.

(7) The Minister may make an order once, and once only, in each financial year, beginning with the financial year following the financial year in which the Waste Management (Amendment) Act, 2001, is passed, amending subsection (3) by substituting for the amount standing specified in that subsection for the time being an amount equal to the amount obtained by multiplying 19 cents by the figure specified in subsection (8) and, if the amount so obtained is not a whole number of cents and the Minister considers it appropriate to do so and specifies in the order that the amount has been so rounded, rounding (up or down as he or she thinks fit) the amount to the nearest whole number of cents.

(8) The figure mentioned in subsection (7) is the quotient, rounded up to 3 decimal places, obtained by dividing the consumer price index number relevant to the financial year in which the order concerned is made by the consumer price index number relevant to the financial year 2001.

(9) A person who fails to—

(a) pay levy which is due and payable by virtue of regulations under subsection (2), or

(b) comply with a provision of regulations under that subsection, or

(c) comply with any term or condition of a scheme referred to in subsection (6)(k) carried out by him or her or in which he or she has assented to participate (and which assent has not, by notice in writing given to the person carrying out the scheme before the failure occurs, been withdrawn),

shall be guilty of an offence.

(10) In proceedings for the recovery of levy or for an offence under subsection (9)(a), it shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, that the bag or bags in respect of which the levy concerned is alleged not to have been paid was or were a plastic bag or bags within the meaning of this section.

(11) In proceedings for the recovery of levy or for an offence under subsection (9)(a), it shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, that the number of plastic bags supplied to customers in or at the premises concerned in the circumstances mentioned in subsection (2) in a particular period was equal to the number of plastic bags acquired for the purposes of such supply in that period by the person who carried on, during that period, the business of selling goods or products in or at those premises or, if two or more persons each carried on, during that period, such a business in or at those premises, whichever of them caused to be made the particular supply of plastic bags concerned.

(12) (a) The Minister may make a provisional order extending the application of this section to such other types of article as he or she considers appropriate by—

(i) substituting for references to plastic bags in this section references to articles specified in the order (and the articles so specified shall include plastic bags), and

(ii) making such consequential amendments of this section (other than this subsection and subsection (13)) as he or she considers necessary or appropriate, and such amendments may include a provision—

(I) specifying that subsection (3) shall, in relation to a particular article or articles referred to in the order, apply as if, for the amount standing specified in that subsection for the time being, there were substituted an amount specified in the order (in clause (II) of this subparagraph referred to as the ‘altered amount’), and

(II) in consequence of that specification, specifying that—

(A) subsection (7) shall, in relation to the said article or articles, apply as if, for the reference in that subsection to 19 cents, there were substituted a reference to the altered amount, and

(B) subsection (8) shall, in relation to the said article or articles, apply as if, for the reference in that subsection to the consumer price index number relevant to the financial year 2001, there were substituted a reference to the consumer price index number relevant to a financial year specified in the order.

(b) The Minister may make a provisional order amending or revoking a provisional order under this subsection (including a provisional order under this paragraph).

(13) A provisional order under subsection (12) shall not have effect unless or until it is confirmed by an Act of the Oireachtas.”.