David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this issue and the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, for being here to take it. I am sure I am speaking to the converted as far as he is concerned when I state we live in a beautiful country. It is fabulous. There are lovely hedgerows, fields, mountains, lakes, rivers and coastlines throughout the country, but the amount of litter and fly-tipping is increasing all the time. It is particularly evident on rural roads. Now that the vegetation has died back, all the cans, bottles, paper, plastic and other litter that has been dumped there can be seen. It is a blight on the landscape. It is a national shame.

I am calling for a national campaign to combat this problem. It should not be a once-off spring clean but rather a year-round campaign. I would like the Minister of State himself to head and personify it. It needs a champion. Maybe he will take that on, become known as the Minister against litter and clean up the country once and for all.

I pay tribute to those involved in Tidy Towns, who do amazing work, as well as Irish Business Against Litter, which was formed by Tom Cavanagh many years ago and does amazing work. I pay tribute to the Clean Coasts programme and, in my area in particular, Clean Coasts Ballynamona, which is led by Proinsias Ó Tuama, a teacher at St. Colman's Community College. It is an award-winning group that picks up litter along the coastline.

I am very concerned about remote areas such as rural roads and wild places that are being despoiled and ruined by people throwing away bags of litter. The litter is then attacked by crows and vermin and scattered. We need to find, name and shame those responsible, but we also need to have pride in our area and our country. We need to call on nationalism here and stop this scourge once and for all. Everything that can be done must be done. We must be unrelenting. People who come to Ireland and see the extent of this problem cannot believe it is so bad in some areas. I was going home on a Sunday recently and noticed that a person had just dumped two black bags of rubbish. The crows were beginning to open the bags and tear the rubbish apart. That is happening ever more often. Far more needs to be done.

I acknowledge that money is being allocated to local authorities and spent but each local authority should have a champion in respect of this issue. That person's one and only job should be to combat litter and to provide education, information and awareness-raising programmes to make people ashamed of litter and bring their litter home with them rather than dumping it out a car window. Walking along a country road, you can tell where the chip bag was emptied because you can see where all the litter has been thrown in particular areas. There are bottles, cans and plastic, which lasts almost forever. It impacts on wildlife - plants and animals and the visual beauty that should be there.

We need to get serious about this. We need somebody to champion it and be unrelenting on it. It should not just be about having a spring clean and then forgetting about it for the rest of the year. We need to do everything we can. I refer to recycling programmes. There was a talk earlier about coffee cups and reducing their use and so on. We are not doing it quickly enough, however. This issue should be highlighted on television screens, in newspapers, schools and cinemas and at community groups. There could be signs for car bumpers and so on to raise awareness. The Minister should have a committee of creative people working with him to prevent littering. In addition, there is a need for more incentives to help people to clean up their areas.

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