We work as English language teachers in the city centre. A Chinese student recently came to us with a letter he had received from Dublin City Council which he had trouble understanding. After reading the letter we told him he was being fined €125 for dumping a black bag of rubbish.
The puzzling aspect was that the bag was found on Moore Street in the city centre and the fine was then sent to his address in Dún Laoghaire.
I admit we had a little chuckle at the idea of our student taking the Dart from Dún Laoghaire to Connolly with a bag of rubbish under his arm. Confident that City Council staff would share our appreciation of this absurd notion, we contacted them. However, they remained adamant that our student would be fined, citing three pieces of rubbish found in the bag which linked our student to it. We requested the evidence and were sent three stained sheets of paper.
The first was a job rejection letter clearly addressed to our student. As many of your readers who live in rented accommodation will testify, we renters often pick up our mail in the morning and take it with us as we go about our daily business. Mail does not earn a place in our private bins simply by turning up on our doorstep. Considering this piece of evidence inconclusive we moved on to the second piece of paper.
This was a bathroom checklist from a famous theatre in Dublin (our student doesn't work there or steal checklists from its bathrooms). Puzzled, we moved onto the third piece of evidence. This was an advertisement, in Chinese, for DVDs. We are at a loss to establish the connection between our student and this last piece of evidence other than that he can read it.
Our student works in a fast-food restaurant and the fine represents practically a week's wages. Although this is a specific problem we feel the zeal and creativity displayed by the City Council could have wider implications. Perhaps some of your readers may be able to help us see the links we have obviously missed. - Yours, etc,
STEPHEN BRUCE,
MATT BYRNE,
Leinster Square,
Dublin 6.