Fine Gael accuses Roche of selling out over gum

A STICKY political row erupted last night as Environment Minister Dick Roche was accused of selling out to chewing gum companies at a cost of €20 million a year to taxpayers.

Fine Gael rubbished his plans for an anti-litter campaign and said major firms such as Wrigley should be ordered to pay for cleaning up the mess their customers leave on our streets.

The Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) group said the plan was a missed opportunity to get “polluters” to foot what they insisted was a €20m a year bill for washing gum from Irish streets.

Fine Gael’s environment spokesman Fergus O’Dowd branded the Government’s rejection of a 10% anti-litter tax on gum sales as a “sell-out” to the multi-national manufacturers.

The criticism erupted after Mr Roche announced an initiative to raise public awareness about the high cost of gum clean-up.

As part of the scheme Wrigley International will fund a €1m research project to come up with alternative ways to dispose of gum.

Manufacturers had lobbied against an anti-litter tax, fearing other countries would follow suit.

Mr O’Dowd said: “The chewing gum industry will not have to pay one penny towards the phenomenally high cost of removing gum from our streets.

“I have learned it costs €4000 per week to remove gum from a town the size of Drogheda. The cost of cleaning gum off Grafton Street, Henry Street and O’Connell Street alone last year cost Dublin City Council a staggering €130,000.

“It would be far more productive to properly invest in litter wardens to catch and punish the significant minority of litterbugs who throw their gum on the ground,” he said.

Mr Roche insisted his initiative would deliver a longer term solution.

IBAL chairman Dr Tom Cavanagh said: “IBAL does not seek to outlaw chewing gum. Rather, in keeping with the polluter pays principle, we have favoured a levy to pay for its removal. It would cost local authorities €20m to remove gum from our streets each year.”