A Social Democrats TD has criticised a lack of transparency and poor corporate governance in relation to the company behind the controversial Re-turn scheme, and described the way the firm was set up as “bizarre”. In a damning broadside, Jennifer Whitmore said she had “serious concerns” regarding the operation of the deposit return scheme, and does not believe it can continue in its current form. Ms Whitmore, who is a member of the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment and Climate Action, questioned Minister Ossian Smyth about the scheme in the Dáil last week, but was unhappy with the level of information he provided.
The Re-turn scheme is operated by a private company called Deposit Return Scheme Ireland Limited, and most of its directors are representatives of major beverage producers. READ MORE: Only fraction of containers bought under Deposit Return Scheme brought back to machines READ MORE: Re-turn machines rejecting one in five recyclable containers as punters fume over 'stupid tax' “When you have good governance on a board, it would dictate that the people are independent of the entity as such, that there isn’t any conflict or perceived conflict of interests,” Ms Whitmore told the Irish Mirror . “Having so many producers on the board would raise concerns for me.
[The list] read more like a stakeholders’ group as opposed to a board of directors,” she added. A spokesman for Re-turn rejected the criticism, insisting that the scheme is operating "to.