People would get help with the cost of repairs to broken down dishwashers, glitchy laptops and banjaxed bicycles under an election pledge from the Green Party.
The party is promising to cover 50 per cent of repair costs up to a maximum payment of €100 to the person with the broken item as part of an effort to reduce waste. The proposed scheme – being spearheaded by Minister of State Ossian Smyth – is based on a similar initiative introduced in Vienna in 2020 before being extended to the rest of Austria last year.
It would start on a pilot basis in Ireland with €10 million from the Circular Economy Fund which would cover to the cost of at least 100,000 repairs. In reality more repairs would happen as it is envisaged that not everyone will claim the full €100 that would be available.
Minister of State for Public Expenditure and Reform Ossian Smyth said the proposed scheme would both save people money and help the environment.
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“Most of us can remember our parents calling someone to get our TV or washing machine to be repaired but nowadays the shop will tell us ‘it’d be cheaper just to buy a new one’ than to fix it’,” the Dún Laoghaire candidate said. “We know instinctively that that’s not right. Shops shouldn’t be telling us to dump something just because a small component inside it has broken.”
Mr Smyth said the State needs to intervene so that repairing an item is the first – and cheapest – step when an appliance breaks down.
He said the scheme would also have the advantage of ensuring Ireland is more resilient in the event of another shock to supply chains as happened during Covid, or any interruption to trade at the Suez Canal. “We know from the experience of past crises such as wars and pandemics that long supply chains are fragile and put us at risk. Keeping things in circulation – either by reusing them, repairing them or recycling them – makes us more resilient as a country.”
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