Barry Andrews

Good morning, David.

I've been campaigning against fast fashion and the effects of the textile industry for many years now, and I called for a levy to try to discourage people from

buying huge amounts of textiles mostly from China through these platforms, Xi'an and Timu.

The textile industry is responsible for 10% of global emissions, of global carbon emissions, and it's a completely unregulated industry.

And unfortunately, there's no circularity, just 1% of textiles

are recycled in Ireland.

So something needs to be done.

There are 6 billion articles coming into the European Union every year with no charges whatsoever.

So it's putting huge pressure on customs.

But whenever I've campaigned on this issue, when I meet people, they say, well, what about the cost of living issue?

It's absolutely very important that we have that discussion.

I'm sure we'll get into it during the course of this conversation.

But I'll just say finally that

There are false economies associated with some of these products.

They're not sustainable.

They're not durable.

And I think that's one of the considerations in this debate.

Well, I hope so.

This is a temporary measure before the legislation that Regina referred to is brought in.

And I think, look, let's be clear, if you add a charge at the supplier level or at the consumer level, ultimately the consumer will pay this.