Sir, - Throughout the country, members of the business community have sponsored the display of signs proclaiming: "Please ignore the litter. The Government does."
This sign is symptomatic of the country's litter problem. The Government's poor record on litter is surpassed by that of the people. The rubbish I see everywhere - in the streets, in the housing estates, in the country lanes - was not secreted there by the Government. It's us, the people, who created this mess. It's us, the people who sullenly fail to remove the least bit of litter from anywhere beyond our overpriced properties. We prefer to wait in Godotesque style for the council bin-man to clear our immediate neighbourhoods of our self-inflicted squalor.
It's time we dropped our poor, downtrodden, victimised psyche and accepted blame and responsibility ourselves.
Until then the sign should read: "Please ignore the litter. We do." - Yours, etc.,
Finbar Murphy, Old Singland Road, Ballysimon, Limerick.