AMBASSADOR WEIGHS IN WITH ENVIRONMENT MINISTER

UNCLAS DUBLIN 001584

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON ETRD SENV
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR WEIGHS IN WITH ENVIRONMENT MINISTER
AGAINST GUM TAX



1. On October 18, the Ambassador, Chicago-based Wrigleys CEO
Ronald Waters, and UK Wrigleys Chief Officer Alistair Whalley
met with the newly appointed Minister for the Environment and
Local Government, Dick Roche, to discuss alternatives to the
Irish Government's proposed 5-cent-per-pack chewing gum tax.
The tax, which would raise revenues to clean streets soiled
by discarded gum, would not change Ireland's permissive
attitudes toward litter, while dampening gum sales, explained
the Wrigleys representatives. As an alternative, Wrigleys
had offered the GOI a financial commitment to establish an
industry board that would build anti-littering social
awareness through educational programs and stronger
enforcement of littering fines. Waters mentioned that pilot
programs using this approach in the UK had reduced gum litter
by 50 percent, and the Ambassador added that the civic pride
fostered by such programs would help to diminish littering
and clean-up costs over the long run. Waters also stressed
that the industry continued to work on making gum more
bio-degradable, with the challenge of retaining anti-cavity
ingredients that had led the dental profession to endorse
gum-chewing.


2. Roche said that the GOI sought a well-rounded approach to
gum litter problems and would seriously consider Wrigleys
proposal before the October 29 deadline on the public comment
period for the proposed gum tax. He noted that 90 million
packs of gum were sold annually in Ireland and that discarded
gum accounted for roughly 18 percent of food-related street
litter, with the proportion rising as smokers switched to gum
with the recent ban on smoking in public places. He added
that gum's stickiness led typical small towns to spend euro
40,000 per year on street sprayings. Roche acknowledged the
logic in Wrigleys' argument that changes in social behavior
offered the best long-run solution to gum litter problems,
but cautioned that the GOI was under pressure from local
governments to be seen as tackling these problems in the two
years left before general elections. The tax, if
implemented, would be a visible measure that would help local
governments to cover clean-up costs in that short span, said
Roche. He added that the Department of the Environment had
not made a final decision on the tax and would continue to
consult with Wrigleys and the industry over the coming weeks.


3. Comment: Roche, a former International Visitors Program
participant, is a close Embassy contact and favorably
disposed toward the United States. In his former post as
Minister of State for European Affairs at the Department of
Foreign Affairs, he was an important USG interlocutor during
Ireland's recent EU presidency. Roche was also a central
player in Member States' negotiations on the EU Constitution,
and his appointment to the Environment Department was seen as
a reward for such efforts. Roche made environmental issues a
focus of his 12-year parliamentary career and has told the
Ambassador that he entered politics out of anger over illegal
waste dumps in his Wicklow constituency.
KENNY