Fine Gael don’t know where they are on fast fashion
Fine Gael don’t know where they are on fast fashion - The Labour Party
- Then Minister Coveney opened Shein’s Dublin office in May 2023
- Two years’ on and Minister Alan Dillon u-turns
Labour climate spokesperson Ciaran Ahern TD said he is baffled at the approach taken by Fine Gael when it comes to tackling fast fashion producers like Shein.
Following the announcement this morning of a consultation on clothing circularity, Minister Dillon was unable to answer the basic questions as to how this would take on fast fashion outlets. Nor was he asked about Fine Gael’s previous support of such companies.
Deputy Ahern said:
“Fine Gael clearly have no interest in taking on what is not only a planet crisis, but a people crisis. Fast fashion’s ecological footprint is enormous and changes are needed to incentivise sustainable consumption patterns.
“It lacks credibility for Fine Gael to belatedly wake up to this crisis. Just two years ago, then Minister Simon Coveney proudly opened Shein’s Dublin HQ. This was at a time when we already knew the shocking environmental impact that such producers have.
“100 billion items of clothing are produced each year, and over the past twenty years, clothing production and consumption have doubled, yet consumers only keep their clothes half as long. 93% of used clothes end up being dumped, incinerated or exported annually.
“The UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion showed that fashion was responsible for 8-10% of global carbon emissions for 2019. It can no longer be ignored as an enormous polluter in the chain.
“This is before we even get to speak about the horrific abuses suffered by workers’ in Shein. A BBC probe in January 2025 found that factory workers making clothing for Shein work 75 hour weeks and earn less than 1 cent per garment. Women and young girls in marginalised economies are particularly impacted by these ills.
“Labour has a long history of calling for better waste management, and advocating for measures to reduce waste. This is not something that we’ve just woken up to. It’s more than 20 years since we published our Waste Matters policy document in 2005, an alternative strategy on waste management to that of the Government of the day. It proposed radical and meaningful actions to improve the ways we deal with waste and build the appropriate infrastructure to do so.
“Many of those policy proposals have since been adopted, like waste segregation, investing in recycling plants, providing waste treatment facilities and so on.
“While it’s welcome to see Fine Gael finally wake up to the ills of fast fashion, it does beg the question if they are serious about taking on some of the biggest polluters of our time. It cannot just be left to individual action. This Government must wake up to the reality of the impact of polluters like fast fashion on our climate.”