{"id":614626,"date":"2026-09-04T20:36:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T20:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/614626\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T20:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T20:36:17","slug":"right-to-repair-could-save-us-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/614626\/","title":{"rendered":"Right to repair could save us money"},"content":{"rendered":"

An EU<\/a> directive which makes it easier for Irish<\/a> consumers who want to have their washing machines, phones, vacuum cleaners and other household goods repaired rather than replaced when they break down should be good news for both the environment<\/a> and for our wallets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The goal of the EU repair directive<\/a>, which came into force late last month, is to make product lifespans longer and quickly reduce the need for the premature replacement of goods. <\/p>\n

It is an entirely common-sense idea and, if it works, it will help to combat a needless mountain of waste that grows by tens of million of tonnes each year. <\/p>\n

It will also lessen the environmental impact that the manufacture of these goods has on the planet, as more repairs mean less products will be sold and made.<\/p>\n

And, obviously, if someone can get their washing machine repaired for a reasonable sum rather than having to replace it for a less reasonable one, consumers win too. <\/p>\n

Anyone who has ever experienced the misery of spending \u20ac500 on a washing machine, only for it to develop a fault after two years and to be told by the person sent out to repair it that it can\u2019t be done, will be delighted with the news. <\/p>\n

Under the new \u201cright-to-repair\u201d rules, makers of products in certain categories will have to offer a repair service if their goods develop faults outside the typical guarantee window.<\/p>\n

Consumers will be able to request repairs directly from the makers at a reasonable price and within a reasonable timeframe. They will also be given assistance in locating repair providers through a national repair platform linked to the wider European repair network.<\/p>\n

A repair directory, repairmystuff.ie<\/a>, is being developed to serve as the national repair platform.<\/p>\n

When announcing implementation of the directive, Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke said the Government had \u201csought to strike the right balance between supporting consumers, encouraging sustainable economic activity and ensuring that businesses are not faced with unnecessary regulatory burdens. Repair should be an accessible, practical and affordable option for consumers, and these regulations help make that a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minister for the Environment Darragh O\u2019Brien said the new regulations would be \u201cimportant in helping to meet our climate goals by realigning how we produce, consume and value materials\u201d. <\/p>\n

He suggested they could help Ireland to \u201cemerge as a European leader in circular economy innovation \u2013 designing out waste, reducing our reliance on the extraction of raw materials to reduce emissions to secure a cleaner, fairer, lower\u2011carbon future\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ambition v reality <\/p>\n

But questions remain to be answered. <\/p>\n

It is not entirely clear what will be considered \u201creasonable\u201d by those offering repairs and by those seeking them. It also remains to be seen what volume of products will still be deemed impossible to repair \u2013 directive or no directive.<\/p>\n

The reality is that too many of the products we rely on are built by multinational corporations that are often motivated at least as much by profits that enrich their shareholders as they are by giving their customers satisfaction.<\/p>\n

If their main aim is to manufacture products at the cheapest possible cost before selling them at the highest possible price, there is always the danger of an impact on quality and the use of cheaper parts. If these machines break down or fail sooner rather than later, planned obsolescence forces people to buy again. <\/p>\n

So it is a win-win for them.<\/p>\n

Kilian Kaminski, co-founder of refurbished marketplace refurbed.ie<\/a>, says this is a key question that has yet to be answered. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the current right-to-repair legislation goes far enough for three main reasons,\u201d he told The Irish Times earlier this week. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe first is price,\u201d he said. \u201cThe legislation talks about repairs being reasonably priced, but it isn\u2019t clear what \u2018reasonable\u2019 actually means. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe second is that there are still loopholes around repair blockers, including situations involving intellectual property rights. And the third is scope. We need clear requirements that products are designed to be repairable in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed out that \u201crepairable\u201d means \u201cmore than giving consumers the legal right to have a product repaired\u201d. He suggested that products would have to \u201cbe designed in a way that means it can actually be repaired\u201d.<\/p>\n

He pointed to modular design in smartphones. \u201cIdeally, if one part of a device, like the camera, needs replacing or upgrading, you should be able to replace that individual component rather than having to replace the entire phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said some niche phone makers adopt this approach, but it needs to be more mainstream. \u201cModular designs make it much easier to keep a device in use for longer because you can upgrade individual components as technology develops.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why right to repair and eco-design need to work hand in hand. The right to repair gives consumers the right to seek a repair, but eco-design is what determines whether that repair is realistically possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said another element to consider was software. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason why a phone shouldn\u2019t be able to function for 10\u201315 years with a new battery and the ability to repair issues with the hardware. But manufacturers repeatedly make phones obsolete by not providing security updates to old software.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also pointed to software locks and \u201cthings like part pairing, where replacement components can be linked to a particular device and the phone can give the consumer warnings when it recognises that a part is not the original one. These practices make perfectly functional devices obsolete, forcing the upgrade culture cycle to continue, and increasing e-waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaminski warned that AI \u201cis only going to make this issue worse. On-device AI requires newer processors and a lot of storage, so consumers who want the latest AI capabilities in their tech will be forced to buy new to access it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from the need for the hardware and software used by phone makers to be future-proofed, consumers also have a role to play. One of the biggest issues facing the refurbished market is that there are not enough used devices coming back into the system. <\/p>\n

\u201cDemand for refurbished products is growing, but European consumers are still keeping a lot of their old phones and electronics in drawers rather than returning them, creating a shortage,\u201d Kaminiski warned.<\/p>\n

Even when consumers do get rid of their old devices, they don\u2019t necessarily enter the right part of the circular economy. A working phone might be put into a general electronic-waste container and end up being treated as something to recycle. <\/p>\n

But if it was still working, or only needed one small component replaced, that\u2019s a huge loss of value and lifespan. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are effectively skipping the \u2018reuse\u2019 part of the cycle and going straight to \u2018recycling\u2019, believing that is the right thing to do,\u201d Kaminiski said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need better education and better collection systems that allow devices to be assessed first, so that products that can be reused or refurbished stay in circulation, and only those that genuinely can\u2019t be reused go to recycling.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can contact us at OnTheMoney@irishtimes.com<\/a> with personal finance questions you would like to see us address. If you missed last week\u2019s newsletter, you can read it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An EU directive which makes it easier for Irish consumers who want to have their washing machines, phones,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,5148,61,60,33319],"class_list":["post-614626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-european-union","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-on-the-money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}