A €200 fine for littering, breaking red lights or parking on double yellow lines – though I’d prefer offenders to be placed in the stocks.

I saw a car breaking the red lights yesterday.

Sorry. That’s a lie.

At this particular set of traffic lights, THREE cars went through on red.

In fact, at every traffic light at which I was stopped, at least two cars went through on red.

In Rathgar, four cars were parked partly on the footpath making it difficult, not just for the blind or disabled, but for mothers wheeling prams and buggies. They were also on double yellow lines.

Further down the road, there were cars parked in cycle lanes and bus lanes.

Pedestrians wandered across roads and streets all over the place without a care in the world.

These days cyclists ride their bikes down Grafton Street, along footpaths, through pedestrian lights.

And don’t get me started on the electric scooter users – no tax, no licence, no insurance and, apparently, no obligation to pay the slightest bit of attention to the law.

And then there are deliveries. I drove down Dame Street one morning and there were seven delivery vans on double yellow lines on one side of the road and six on the other. At rush hour. Blocking a lane in each direction.

 

It wouldn’t be allowed in any other capital city. In fact it’s not allowed in most.

Get onto one of our motorways and drive at the top legal speed – and you’ll be passed out by dozens of cars.

The streets all over the place seem to be covered in litter. Our parks certainly are.

Here and there, gangs of kids, seven, eight, nine in a group, all but hug each other as they defy social distancing rules.

(Will you get to the shagging point Murray?)

1. I get it that throwing a bit of litter on the ground or breaking a red light doesn’t exactly qualify you to become Christy Kinahan’s Second in Command.

But it does demonstrate the same disdain for the laws of the land, and for your fellow citizens that criminal gangs display.

I would seriously love to see 100 litter bugs dragged into court every day.

The same for motorists who break the lights and cyclists who do the same.

I don’t understand why we tolerate such contempt for laws and each other.

And I think enforcing our laws and imposing a compulsory €200 fine for each and every one of the offences I’ve mentioned would not only be effective, but would create employment and be self-financing.

Yes I know.

I should be Taoiseach.