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THE PLASTIC BAG LEVY, introduced over ten years ago, has yielded over €200 million in tax revenue, according to recently released figures.
Figures from the Department of the Environment released in a written answer show that the 22 cent levy has so far raised €7.2 million this year contributing to the overall take of €203.4 million in the last 11 years.
The levy was introduced by former Fianna Fáil Environment Minister Noel Dempsey in March 2002 and was originally set at 15 cent before being increased in mid-2007 to 22 cent.
This saw the yield jump from just under €20 million in 2006 to €26.7 million in 2008 which is still the highest amount taken in a single year since the levy’s introduction.
The onset of the financial crisis saw fewer plastic bags sold in recent years with the €14.2 million taken last year continuing a four-year decline in the amount of revenue raised from the tax indicating fewer bags being purchased by consumers.
Environment Minsiter Phil Hogan said the introduction in the levy led to a drop from an estimated 328 bags per person per year prior to the levy being introduced to 21 bags per person by the end of 2002 and a further reduction to an estimated 14 bags per person by the end of 2012.
Last year’s report by the National Litter Pollution Monitoring System indicated that plastic bags constituted 0.3 per cent of litter in 2012 in comparison to 5 per cent prior to the introduction of the levy.
Ireland’s decision was mirrored by other countries over the last decade with Wales introducing a 5p charge in 2011. Northern Ireland followed suit earlier this year and intends to increase the levy to 10p in April 2014.
Meanwhile Hogan has declined to say how much an increase in the levy to 25 cent or 30 cent would yield, saying “revenue to be obtained from the increases… would be dependent on consumer behaviour in response to any such increase”.
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Was this “tax” not supposed to be used to fund Green Projects? Any word on where the money has been spent or as suspected, has it gone to fund the pensions of ex Anglo Bankers?
it does fund green projects……………166 of them.
How much has it raised for Dunnes stores?!
@Dmc: I presume you mean FROM Dunnes rather than FOR Dunnes?
The plastics company’s are lobbying hard for the English government not to introduce such a levy,
I watched one of their lobbiests on channel 4 news a few months back, his counter arguments for why no levy should exist were nonsense.
The levy was a good idea, it got people to stop wasting plastic bags and that is what it was designed to do. It’s also an optional payment for everyone which is good.
I watched that program also, the guy was a twit. He had no argument. When he said he knew for a fact that ” the Irish use bin bags to do their shopping” Jeremy Irons fairly put him in his place. I guess he didn’t realise Jeremy Irons lived in Ireland.
200 million we could have got a few more county managers with that kind of money floating around.
Yes. Where has the money gone?
I doubt they know. It all gets shovelled into a big trough to be transported out of the country…
The levy was imposed to reduce litter.
A great success.
Was in Spain last week. Plastic bags in their Masymas cost 5 cent, have plenty room and don’t fall apart the moment you lift them with groceries inside!
I was in Majorca in June, no charge for plastic bags and they had plastic bags for plastic bags. Crazy the amount they used.
Kerrigan do Irish plastic bags fall apart the moment you lift them with groceries inside????
I’ve certainly never experienced this.
If it bothers you just bring your own durable bag ye muppet!
Name-calling over a plastic bags discussion… good lad!
Please accept my apologies, that was out of order!
I must have been having a very rough morning!
The charge for carrier bags has no wavers or exemptions and can be said to be 99% effective in reducing waste. If the water charge or any other other charge exempts people of low self-discipline they will not be effective.
Why not extend it to plastic water bottles, same deal people only use them cause they are easy if the had to pay more they would use reusable bottles? The streets of Dublin are covered in them
Or why not use the money raised to set up a recycling system for those plastic bottles like just about every non backward European country has? Was it not the same idiotic minister for the environment that said it would be too expensive to implement?
There was a 20km run here the other day for charity , I live in a beautiful scenic area. myself and my daughter picked up a load of empty plastic water bottles yesterday when our for a walk .
I’m guessing an increase is on the cards if its popping up randomly in the news.
No problem with this, it’s a very forward thinking way of doing things.
Pity they won’t put motor tax onto fuel to continue the forward thinking.
They already put motor tax into the cost of fuel… Then the brought back motor tax and left it on the fuel too, careful what you wish for.
The plastic bag for life as they are called don’t last all that long. i got myself a few of those mesh ones from tescos. they are the only job. have them 4 years now.
i was in Asda in Enniskillin last year and picked up a few bits and the staff were throwing around plastic bags like they were going out of fashion.
Was in M&S Dundrum two weeks ago, they refused ‘point blank’ to give me a paper bag and insisted i buy a plastic one…(Something was spouted out about ‘company policy’).
So much for them being a ‘green’ company… Queried it on their Facebook page, but they hadn’t the courtesy to even reply.
So, don’t tell me theres nothing in it for the retailer!
(Note for M&S legal team; this was in the Foodhall, where i had bought a few packets of sweets for the kids;-))
yes, the bag levy is the most profitable item in M&S. It makes billions for them every year.
Nonsense.
A good tax.
Tesco introduced those small ultra thin bags that fall apart after one use.. Is this to encourage people to buy the more expensive ones?
Yes
There is no mark up for the retailer, of course he/ she only passes the tax on, on those bags he declares as sold.
The thing I have never understood about this tax, is why not ban plastic shopping bags completely and bring in decent strong brown paper bags. The Americans and some companies here and in UK have been for years.
So it actually has very little to do with reducing litter more with raising Goverment revenue. With regard to the tax being used for environmental purposes, some examples of which and where might be in orderd
‘no mark up for the retailer’
so a 70 cent bag in dunnes cost dunnes 70 cent………………….I don’t think so.
Duke read the article it is about the TAX sorry I thought people had enough intelligence to realise that I was referring to the sums taken in by retailers as tax. I shall take care in future to spell every thing out as easy as i can
22 cent of it is tax.
oct budget will see a reusable bag tax, bring your own shopping bag tax, for those who reuse cardboard boxes in lidl,aldi will be hit with a new tax for using the box and disposing of the box,walking to your car tax, put shopping in car tax…..
Silly boy.
The only tax ever introduced that had a benefit.
yes and a 10 cent return on bottles and cans is badly needed.
Used to have that
but bottles and cans can be disposed of free of charge in any bottle bank and indeed I often put a plastic bottle or drinks can in the litter bin in my shopping centre – that’s what its there for.
Everly country I have been to in Asia gives you a plastic bag for everything, even if you buy a chewing gum they put it in a bag unless you tell them not to (which I always do). It’s crazy!
is that you on the surfboard?
Yeah. Why?
because you’re everything a girl should be……………fit/well travelled/intelligent.
A lot of assumptions based on one photo and one comment but thank you :)
How niave I must be. I thought this Green Tax was to discourage us from using plastic bags and cutting litter. Such an indepth analysis as this suggests that the government are relying on this income and are concerned by the diminishing use of bags! The article hints at a further increase in the levy. I would like to see what green projects are actually being funded by all of these millions of euro!
Julie,
Yes you are naive. Meant sarcastically, did you know that income tax was raised in the 1700s by William Pitt as a TEMPORARY measure to finance the war against the French.
When has a tax ever been used solely for its “intended” purpose.
Raised over 200 million to be squandered on debt repayment.
If its raised 200 million it shows it hasn’t worked..people are not put off buying a plastic bag.
It was a great idea, the only thing I hate about it is I never know how many bags to bring?
Plastic bag in ASDA stranbane, the heavy type 5p, the same type Dunnes Stores letterkenny 70 cent.
Rip of Ireland again
10 asda bags 50p approx 60cent
10 Dunnes stores bags 7 euro, Am I missing something here.
Duness Stores “better value” my arse.
my ‘why are comments being removed’
was removed.
How sad are you hugh?
200 million and the country is still no better off
Yeah, why?
have your say