Litter In The Budget

Sir, - When he was launching An Taisce's National Spring Clean 1999 last month, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government…

Sir, - When he was launching An Taisce's National Spring Clean 1999 last month, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Noel Dempsey, referred to "our scandalous litter problem". How right he was.

More recently, when the Finance Minister, Mr McCreevy, unveiled the Budget for next year, it included a "litter initiative" to expand the anti-litter programme of the Department of Environment and Local Government. The allocation for this initiative in 1999, according to the Budget statement, is £100,000!

Is this some kind of joke?- Yours, etc., Tom Cavanagh,

Chairman, Irish Business Against Litter, Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2.