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Smoking ban will profit government
By Joe Giltrap
 There
is big money in rubbish. Ireland has increased on-the-spot fines for the
careless and uncaring who drop their litter on the streets by €25
to €150. For example Dublin City Council alone issued nearly 4,000
such fines last year.
That is a fair few bob in anybody’s language.
In case you are wondering what I am getting at let me explain at the outset
that I have no sympathy for litterbugs.
According to reports in Ireland smokers are responsible for most of the
rubbish and experts believe that this is mainly as a result of the smoking
ban.
Pedestrians seem to be the main culprits.
Now that the smoking ban has finally come into operation in England will
we see an increase in the amount of rubbish on the streets and how much
is it going to cost us?
I am sure that the Treasury is busy working on ways to swell its hungry
coffers by making the whole country pay in some way for the inevitable
increase in litter.
If the number of smokers decrease then logically the amount of tax raised
will decrease and, of course, from a government viewpoint, this will have
to be compensated for.
I have never smoked because I was a sports fanatic in my youth and later
immersed myself in music so smoking just never crossed my mind.
Performing in a smoke-free environment is now a fantastic relief and I
welcome the change with open arms.
However, although I won’t be popular for saying this, I do question
the necessity of a total ban.
Modern technology has made it possible to have effective, unobtrusive
ventilation and surely designated smoking-only areas with really excellent
ventilation would have sufficed.
I was having a drink with some friends in a pub in Kildare recently and
we were sitting by the window.
Suddenly we were engulfed as smoke started coming in through the open
window from a group of smokers who had gone outside in order to comply
with the law and it made me wonder.
What about the pubs and clubs that had already spent a lot of money making
their premises virtually smoke-free by installing proper ventilation before
the smoking ban was introduced?
They acted responsibly but their views were ignored.
Will we now see eager designated council-controlled smoking litter wardens
sneaking around the streets with their little on-the-spot fine machines
cocked at the ready?
Will they hide around the corners from pubs waiting to see if somebody
drops a cigarette butt?
I can almost see London Mayor Ken Livingstone rubbing his hands with
glee at the prospect of another excuse to raise yet more money.
Speaking rubbish, I thought I would get that in before you did did you
know that Ireland exports most of it’s rubbish?
Apparently up to 83 per cent of the country’s rubbish is shipped
to plants in Britain (as if they did not have enough of their own) and
Germany with some even finding its way to China.
I suppose that in the case of China it is simply some of the rubbish going
back home.
So what happens to it then you might well ask.
That is where it seems the problem arises because nobody can say for
certain what exactly occurs once it leaves Ireland’s shores because
of course they have no control over it.
Does this not make a joke of all the genuine attempts of ordinary households
to do their bit with recycling?
What is the point of separating your rubbish if it all just ends up in
a landfill site in another part of the world?
According to a Fine Gael spokesman it seems that Ireland came bottom of
all EU league tables connected with recycling waste.
The Green Party will have to get their act together now that they have
a small foothold in the running of the country and John Gormley has a
real opportunity to make his presence felt.
I wish him the best of luck he is certainly going to need it. |
