Reuseable cups on trains: Get on track

Semi-state companies do more than provide public-good services. They provide secure employment and some, occasionally, pay a dividend to government.

But they do more than that: They reflect society’s ambitions. They help shape our culture in ways more profound that might be immediately obvious. They are conduits through which we express our ever-changing priorities.

In that context, the report that some Irish Rail commuters have been prevented from using reusable cups is more than disheartening. Irish Rail has said health-and-safety concerns preclude that option. Single-use cups are a plague and a remnant from a more wanton, less informed time. They have no place in today’s world.

This is recognised in the plan to impose a levy of up to 25c a cup to curb their use. Irish Rail should quickly resolve this anachronism and encourage a practice they cannot facilitate today.

Maybe it would have done so already if it, like every business in the country, did not operate in an environment where compensation opportunists are on high alert 24/7.