Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss the legislative framework for combatting litter pollution and the need to motivate and energise the anti-litter response. I hope I will be one quarter as successful as previous speakers and that Deputy Reilly will return to Balbriggan a satisfied man.

We all aspire to a glas agus glan Ireland. I am a proud representative of Tipperary South and the little town of Emly, which won the award for Ireland's tidiest village in 2009. Last Tuesday, I attended a tidy schools presentation at which the town received another award. An Taisce and other community groups organised spring cleans throughout April with the support of FÁS, county councils and volunteers. I am aware that several of my colleagues were involved in these activities. I attended the launch of the initiative with the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, along the canal.

Many schools in my area have qualified for the green flag award. Education is needed alongside legislation. Irish people will not be told what to do and have to be encouraged to work with agencies to create a cleaner, greener and more pleasant environment.

I drive along the motorway between Dublin and Cork at least twice each week. This newly built road cost millions of euro and entailed significant inconvenience to communities along its route, including compulsory purchase orders and land that has not yet been paid for, but the lack of planning on the part of the NRA and county councils for rest facilities is scandalous. The facilities that exist are a joke. People are meant to pull off the road and rest because of the danger of driver fatigue but there is not even a shelter or a place to get out and stretch one's legs. Worst of all, however, there is a lack of rubbish bins or gadgets for holding cigarette butts. I do not smoke but I have no objections to others smoking. One is not supposed to smoke in one's company car. It is not good enough that such disregard is shown to the travelling public.

I welcome the opening of the new motorway between Abbeyleix and Cullahill but it is not acceptable to drive by these places and see them covered in litter. There was no correspondence from county councils regarding the maintenance of these roads. Nobody was responsible for the grit over Christmas or for repairing damaged barriers. When a lorry sheds a tire or waste falls off a truck, nobody picks it up. It is dangerous to leave such items in the bushes because they could blow across the motorway and cause serious accidents. A co-ordinated effort by county councils and the NRA is needed on our national motorways. We want people to come through the North of Ireland and drive to the South and we need to take pride in our good road infrastructure by keeping it clean.

It is a pity that we have become an unclean people. We need to develop imaginative schemes. The Minister for Social and Family Affairs, who has just left the Chamber, is considering imaginative ideas to help the unemployed. There is significant scope for community service. Our prisons are full and people who are serving custodial sentences should be encouraged to do community work. If we ever convict the bankers who destroyed this country, they should be doing this kind of work instead of receiving their choice of menus in prison. We could hoot our horns as we pass them on the motorways and say, "Well done lads for doing something for your country at long last".

Departments, the NRA and local authorities have a lot of work to do in co-ordinating a response to the problem of litter but we cannot allow it to continue damaging tourism and our image abroad.

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