I speak tonight in my capacity as tourism spokesperson and also as a bog standard Deputy from Dublin Mid-West constituency, which has fast-growing areas such as Lucan and Clondalkin and more rural areas such as Newcastle, Saggart, Rathcoole and Brittas. I constantly receive phone calls from people in all those places about rubbish, dumping, litter and all sorts of things. As tourism spokesperson it has been brought to my attention that guidebooks such as Lonely Planet describe Dublin as filthy.
We all know about the dumping problems throughout the country and action needs to be taken to tackle them. I am not the environment spokesperson, but there is a solution to alleviate some of the problems with litter. I could not help but notice that quite a few people are observing this debate and, without meaning to insult anyone in the Visitors Gallery, I presume that most of them are over the age of 18 and will therefore remember when we had money-back bottles. I remember as a child that I collected them at every chance I got, because one used to get 5p on a bottle. It was a very good way for a young fellow to make a few pounds, but it was also a very good way of recycling.
Sadly, money-back bottles were thrown out. It was considered progress to have one and a half or two litre plastic bottles, which bring with them a number of environmental problems. They are difficult to recycle, and the rings sometimes become caught up in the gullets of birds, fish and mammals. My main point is that there is no reason money-back bottles cannot be reintroduced. The same is true of the idea of money-back cans, which are in use throughout the European Union – in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Denmark and other countries.
Denmark is a case in point. The Danish went one step further. Until 1996, the Danes would not even allow cans to be used in their country. They insisted that everything be reusable rather than recyclable. The European Commission, in its packaging directive of 1998, said that the Danes had to use cans. Now the Danes have a levy on cans, with a 10% to 48% deposit payable on recyclable items such as cans and bottles. The same is true of Sweden. I had the opportunity to visit Stockholm where one enters a supermarket with one's beer can or bottle and shoves it into a machine which prints out a receipt allowing the bearer to a certain amount off groceries.
We have the reputation of being a clean, green country, but at the same time we are in danger of throwing out the baby with the bath water and discouraging repeat tourists at a time when the economy is going down the Swanee because of the dirty – increasingly, filthy – nature of our country as a tourist destination. It would make sense to do anything in our power that would not impose any cost on the Exchequer to ensure that we become a little cleaner.
Every town has its drinkers, whether under age or not, going down to the fields with their cans. I will not get into a conversation about under age drinking tonight. However, if all the people of a certain age around the country had to pay an extra 20 to 50 cent on their cans, I guarantee they would not be leaving them at the bottom of a field or in the local park. They would collect them and even look for those of other people. The same is true of bottles. We might have the opportunity to make the recycling of bottles viable again in this country. The Greens maintain that the closure of the Irish Glass Bottle plant at Ringsend was a tragedy as now we must export the majority of our glass across the Border to Fermanagh.
A market will exist as long as the Government commits some of its legislative power to making it work. To help the country to be a little cleaner regarding cans and bottles, I ask the Minister of State to pass on to the Minister, Deputy Cullen, the fact that there is support in schools throughout my constituency and elsewhere for recycling. Local councils sometimes charge for the privilege, but if the Minister were to introduce a charge for glass bottles and cans at whatever level he felt equitable, I guarantee that he would solve some of the dumping problems overnight and encourage recycling which I believe would double or treble. I ask the Minister to consider the suggestion, given that its administration would not incur significant cost for the Exchequer.
