Roche defends scrapping of proposed chewing-gum levy

Environment Minister Dick Roche has defended his plan to drop a proposed chewing-gum tax in favour of allowing manufacturers to fund an anti-litter education campaign.

Plans to introduce the levy were scrapped last year following lobbying from the US ambassador on behalf of the Wrigleys corporation.

Mr Roche said he was instead allowing manufacturers like Wrigleys to come up with their own plan to tackle the litter problems caused by chewing gum.

He has now agreed a deal that will see these manufacturers providing €2m annually to fund an anti-litter campaign.

Opposition parties have accused the minister of caving in to big business, saying the chewing-gum tax could have been a success like the plastic-bag levy introduced a number of years ago.

However, Mr Roche is insisting that his plan will be more effective as the levy would only have covered a fraction of the cost of cleaning gum from the streets.

"What we need to do is change public attitudes and I think this is the best way forward," he said.