There's a growing consensus that the Government has made a bags of things. They told us that we were the
bees knees during the Celtic Tiger, that our economy was an example to the small nations of the world. Few listened
when economists like David McWilliams warned that the bubble would burst, that the property boom had to end. The
government told us we were in for a soft landing. We were in recession for almost a year before anyone realised it.
Now unemployment is at its worst since the 1980s when thousands, including many of my friends, took the boat or plane in search of work and a new life. There are hundreds of 'ghost estates' around the country and an estimated 300,000 houses, apartments and holiday homes lying idle. Architects, engineers, planners and solicitors have joined the dole queues alongside brickies and plumbers.
One of the few good things which the government did do was introduce a levy on plastic shopping bags in 2002. Shoppers are charged a 22cent levy for disposable plastic bags and the usage of these bags has dropped by 90% which means that fewer bags are going to landfill or littering our streets and countryside.
Supermarkets sell re-usable eco friend 'bags for life' while clothes and other shops provide paper bags for purchases.
Now one of the country's biggest supermarket chains is taking a legal challenge against the levy, one of the few good
pieces of legislation in recent years.
Many of the bags are quite attractive, brightly coloured with eye-catching logos. Of course I couldn't find one of those when taking this pic and had to make do with an old crumpled brown paper bag. So I made a bags of that too.