More than a quarter of retailers signed up to Ireland's Deposit Return Scheme are losing money by running it, an Oireachtas committee will be told today. The recycling programme, introduced under the Green Party in 2024, adds around 15 cent to the price of a can or plastic bottle, which shoppers can reclaim by returning containers to machines in shops and supermarkets. Small newsagents and corner shops say the costs of administering the scheme are not being recovered, prompting a fight-back against what their trade body calls a "crippling" burden.

Sara Orme, President of the Convenience Store and Newsagents' Association, which represents around 1,000 retailers, will tell the Oireachtas Climate Committee that the scheme appears incapable of allowing her sector to recover its costs. Retailers receive 2.2 cent per container for operating the machines, and Re-Turn, the not-for-profit body running the scheme, rejected a request earlier this year to raise that rate. Meanwhile, Irish consumers left €66.7 million in unredeemed deposits in 2024; Re-Turn says this money is reinvested into the scheme. Around 3,800 retailers have signed up in total, roughly 1,000 of them smaller shops.