Terry Brennan (Fine Gael)

Litter bins, bottle banks and recycling centres - we all have them, we all advocated them and we all requested them in our own counties. Travelling from the Cathaoirleach's county recently, I went through a couple of counties that I will not name, and saw bottle banks that were in an absolutely disgraceful condition - full and unemptied for I do not know how long, with household refuse dumped beside them. I saw this in several counties, including my own. I read recently in the newspapers that one of the Dublin councils has withdrawn between 200 and 300 litter bins from streets and estates because of abuse of these bins, such as people dumping household refuse beside them - people who were obviously not paying the refuse charges. It is a question of personal responsibility. I have never used a litter bin because I take my litter home with me. If an emphasis was put on the need for every Irish man, woman and young kid to bring his or her litter home, we would not need half the litter bins we have, and we would not have to empty them, replace them and maintain them.