Consumers with broken electronic goods and other malfunctioning items are to get vouchers as encouragement to opt for repair instead of replacement under a pilot scheme next year.
The vouchers are intended to cut the costs of repairs, which are often too close to replacement price for shoppers to bother going to the trouble.
Details of voucher eligibility and value are still being worked out, but officials are drawing on the experience of countries such as Austria and the Netherlands which have similar schemes.
The pilot is part of the Government’s revised Circular Economy Strategy which aims to keep goods in use longer and reduce the mountains of waste the country’s increasing consumption creates.
It is to be accompanied by support for the establishment of repair workshops at civic amenity sites (CAS), also known as recycling centres.
“One of the objectives is to transform CAS into circular economy hubs that encourage and facilitate the donation, repair and reuse of items such as furniture, textiles, EEE (electrical and electronic equipment) and bicycles,” the strategy states.
Charities, businesses and social enterprises are to be encouraged to partner with CAS to make use of the donated goods.
The move comes in advance of EU regulations that will introduce “digital product passports” – codes or chips embedded in goods to provide details of their material composition, recyclability and repairability.
The strategy also aims to increase recycling rates and require more goods to be made with, and packaged in, recycled and recyclable materials.
A 2024 report commissioned by the Department of the Environment found more than 97 per cent of the materials bought, sold and used for manufacture in Ireland came from virgin sources.
Minister for the Environment Darragh O’Brien said a new approach was needed.
“Nearly half of global greenhouse gas emissions come from how we make and use goods, food and materials,” he said.
“By embedding circularity across our economy, we can cut those emissions at the source – long before they reach our atmosphere.
“This is not simply an environmental project; it is a cornerstone of our climate action agenda.”
The strategy has a three-year time frame, during which it is intended to expand the network of CAS and introduce “reuse and refill” in shops and catering outlets, where it will be obligatory to offer options for customers to bring their own containers.
The long-promised levy on single-use beverage cups – the so-called latte levy – remains on the long finger, however.
Minister of State with responsibility for the circular economy, Alan Dillon, said the original idea of charging a levy at the till was being reviewed.
“We do want to see a significant reduction in single-use cups,” he said. “We have commissioned updated analysis and in tandem we are looking at alternative reusable cup systems.”
Dillon also said he wanted to improve transparency in the Deposit Return Scheme so that people knew what happened to unredeemed deposits.
He said it wasn’t sufficient that the figures were recorded in the accounts of Re-turn, the not-for-profit company running the scheme.
He said the scheme was having a positive impact, increasing the proportion of plastic drinks bottles and aluminium drinks cans collected from 60 per cent to around 75 per cent.
It aims to reach 90 per cent by 2030, but even then, the question of what to do with deposits paid on containers that are not returned will remain.
Re-turn amassed more than €100 million in unredeemed deposits in two years.
Dillon said his officials were looking at ideas and legal options for channelling the money into circularity projects.