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Updated 1.13pm
DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL has launched a campaign aimed at getting the message to young people that graffiti is not cool – and they could face criminal prosecution if they are caught tagging.
The ‘Think Don’t Tag’ campaign, which is being run in partnership with An Garda Síochána, was launched at the Mansion House in Dublin later this morning with an animated video to raise awareness among school children.
“Unfortunately, there seems to be a trend that some people think it’s cool to actually go out and destroy the face of our city, to destroy the face of your city,” Lord Mayor told the audience today.
Speaking at the launch, Garda Inspector Liam Geraghty described graffiti as “criminal damage and vandalism”.
Art is in the eye of the beholder, and in An Garda Síochána we’re not art critics by any means, but the questions we would ask those groups and ask the lads round the table here: is tagging the graffiti something that you would be happy to have on the front of your house or on you garden wall?
He reminded 6th class students from St Mary’s Boys School on Haddington Road who attended the launch that if they were caught and convicted, they could face time in prison or a fine of up to €2,000.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Dublin City Council’s Brian Hanney said part of the message for young people is that tagging is against the law and could land them in big trouble.
“If you’re convicted in the district court for graffiti or tagging, that could impact on things like future travel arrangements. We want to make it clear that tagging is not cool – it has an impact.”
Hanney said it costs an estimated €1 million to deal with the issue each year.
“That’s money that could be better spent elsewhere.
“It’s everywhere,” he said.
You’d wake up and come into the city on a Monday morning after the weekend and there would be whole streets and businesses with tags all over them. It can have quite an impact from the business and tourism point of view.
“Some of it can be quite offensive and have political undertones so it has to be removed quickly,” he said, adding that this can be “very upsetting” for property owners.
“It has a big effect on the city, especially when you look at protected buildings, it’s very expensive to remove graffiti from them, say on the GPO or the Ha’penny Bridge.”
The message in the video hit home for the 6th class students from St Mary’s School. 11-year-old Dylan Lawlor said: “It shows that if you do graffiti now, it could have bad consequences as you’re growing up, so if you do get a job you may not get a very good job.”
“I thought it wasn’t that big a deal, but it does cost a lot of money, and as the mayor said, that money could go to other places like for new parks, playgrounds or stuff that we really need, instead of people destroying the city,” Jordan Behan (12), said.
The video launched today will be played in cinemas around Dublin over the next six weeks and will also be shown in Croke Park this weekend.
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Should be a bumper year for tourists from the UK and the States so
Not so good if you plan on going to the US from Ireland tho.
The Greeks lied about their balance sheet prior to being admitted to the Euro, they lied about their tax receipts, they lied about repaying debts, why haven’t they been f**ked out long before now never mind worrying whether they might leave????
If they leave the Eurozone their debts will have to be written off increasing the burden on the remaining members.
If they stay in the money won’t be paid back but they debt will remain on the books and not shared out amongst the other members.
EU let Greece is as they saw safety in numbers but now must admit that it was a huge mistake.
Which European state benefits from a weak Euro the most?
Germany.
And who made the first soundings about a Greek exit?
Germany.
Seeing a pattern here?
Ming was spot on, we are in an abusive relationship with Europe, and like any abusive relationship the sooner you get out of it the better.
EURO project looks to be in big trouble.
A weak euro is good for exports, and investment. As an export led economy, this is no bad thing!
Agreed, another boost for Ireland’s excellent FDI strategy. A dramatically lower oil price is a boost to many companies too. Some have said the dollar will even reach parity and more with the Euro over the next 3 years as the US roars ahead.
Basing your economic model so heavily on exports simply means you are allowing external factors to steer your economy. Allowing the domestic economy to stay stagnant has been one of the single greatest errors of this government.
Reasonable point but it is not a zero sum game. Having a such a great FDI strategy does not automatically mean that the domestic economy is neglected. FDI has served Ireland well since the 80′s in such a globally competitive world. That is the world we now live in.
I would tend to agree more though generally re the stagnant domestic economy by the current administration. Difficult to do for a small country after they continued taking on the enormous burden of the banking debt.
Looks like it will be easily to sell Mercedes in America from now on, well that’s what the euro is for
Greece may leave, but Lithuania, although a member of E.U. since 2004, adopted the Euro, a few days ago.
Any alternative is generally met with fear in this system.
We all recognise this system benefits the few yet when someone comes out with an alternative the powers that be scare you away, I look forward to Greece trying something different. In reality it’s the EU’s fault they never inserted a viable opt out clause for the euro.
The Euro is going down the drain
We need to leave the EU asap
The Greeks are to blame for their own mess, they lied to everybody about their finances, the rich fiddled like violinists in an orchestra, the retirement age for some was to low, some benefits were far to generous. It was unsustainable!
it also means higher rates of interest in the next couple of years. If capital is flowing from Europe to the US it means the bond market will demand a higher return to buy European Debt.
Shouldn’t the headline read “… fewer and fewer US dollars…”?
Out houshold income is pegged to the dollar.. This decline boosts our income in euro terms by about €37k after tax.
The Bureau de Change in Boston Logan Airport so generously offered me 97 dollars for 100 euro yesterday
Quit your yapping and learn how to trade it folks.
What would deflation in the euro/Germany area do for our “robust” recovery? I couldn’t help but use the word robust but anybody have a clue? Cheaper imports I would imagine would be good and we seem more depended on uk and USA for growth
There’s a similar abusive relationship between the Irish government and the ordinary people of Ireland.
have your say