'Rotten Re-Turn scheme was behind the Greens' election wipeout'

My General Election predictions were hit and miss. I tipped Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch, who came close, but no cigar. Mary Lou McDonald is not in line to become the first female Taoiseach, as I forecast, although she should be.

If the other two lads didn’t club up to block her path, she could make history as Ireland’s first female leader.

I predicted a political shock of some sort, which there wasn’t. Unless the shock is how our vote hasn’t changed in a century.

But I was right in my hunch that Fine Gael’s Edward Timmins would oust Health Minister Stephen Donnelly for the last seat in my constituency of Wicklow. And I knew one thing for sure: Green Minister Ossian Smyth would get the boot from the electorate for his rotten Re-Turn scheme.

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Even the denizens of Dun Laoghaire, where he ran, could take no more and he was voted out. The bottles and cans scheme is up there with the stupidest things ever to be introduced into Irish life and it was Smyth who led it.

The everyday nuisance of it affected how ordinary people voted and played a subconscious role in the Greens wipeout. I think it was the final straw for many.

Here’s why.

Most of us with a brain are eco-conscious these days and want to do our best. Personally, I am borderline obsessive about reducing, reusing and recycling. Yet I hate the Re-Turn scheme.

Green policies must be equal and encourage everyone on board if they are to work long term. For example, we all loved the 22c plastic bag levy, because it rewarded you in savings for bringing your own shopping bags to the supermarket. You felt good to be playing a part in ridding the planet of ugly single-use plastics that live for a thousand years.

But the Re-Turn scheme was a classic example of elite Green ideology that uses stick, not carrot to force behaviour change in ways that often don’t actually make sense. The scheme was a nice virtuous hobby for wealthy people in large houses who have cleaners; while it was disproportionately punitive to those whose lives weren’t so easy.

The head-wreck was we were recycling them already in the household green bin, in a system that was working well enough. To foist this unnecessary extra drudge work onto busy working families was a step too far, and showed if you give the Greens an inch, they take a mile.

What next? Why not a ban on disposable nappies? They’re one of the biggest contributors to plastic waste and a curse on the planet.

Re-Turn Rage played a played a part in the election results - you thought of it every time you nearly broke your neck falling over the mini recycling centre that used to be your kitchen.

You cursed it after lugging the contents of your daily life to the reverse vending machine and waited in line, only to find it broken, yet again.

You were expected to carry the burden of this extra step in the name of green targets, for a scheme that required a fleet of trucks on the roads and machines installed into supermarkets.

It was not cost beneficial. But there was no transparency on its finances, so it seemed like a swizz. Re-Turn won’t release the CEO’s salary, and have not supplied the total figure for bottles and cans not brought back.

The Greens pushed it too far and they lost all but one of their 12 seats. Leader Roderic O’Gorman was lucky to scrape in at the bitter end.

Good riddance to bad rubbish. The party will have to do better, stop sermonising and have more class-inclusive strategies if they’re to deserve a bigger seat at the table.

Anyone sincere about saving the planet will agree.

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