Sir, – Further to "Smokers cause more than half of Irish litter, says report" (News, June 18th), there is no evidence that smokers are any less law abiding than the rest of us. The evidence rather points the other way: the laws to ban smoking in the work place and in all public buildings, bars, restaurants, hotels, clubs, etc, enjoy a remarkable compliance rate.
More recently smokers have had to endure the indignity of being shooed from the forecourts at their office buildings and forced to stand in huddled groups on the pavements or in the local parks in rain, hail and snow.
These locations are hopelessly equipped to handle the daily volumes of cigarette waste. And yet society seems surprised at the sight of dense cigarette litter on our pavements and city parks!
Surely we have the wherewithal to deal with the problem of cigarette litter, and by that I don’t mean rolling out more litter wardens. As an immediate measure, local authorities should install properly designed high-capacity cigarette butt receptacles outside office blocks, on nearby streets and parks and at other public and entertainment venues. Cleansing of receptacles needs to be properly run by the local authority. Fewer departmental reports and more action! – Yours, etc,
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NOEL MAGEE,
Dublin 4.