Beset by criticism and teething troubles when it launched, the scheme has been credited with a “massive reduction” in coastal litter and is helping to fund initiatives such as Boyne Fishermen’s Rescue and Recovery Service
Volunteer crew member Alan McCrohan on the deposit return scheme
For more than 70 years, the Boyne Fishermen’s Rescue and Recovery Service has been saving lives. Volunteers keep the Drogheda-based charity going 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and they are often called throughout the country to help recover bodies lost in lakes and at sea.
With the cost of fuel, maintenance charges and the upkeep of specialist equipment to cover, it has relied on public donations since its foundation in 1952. But with moves to a cashless society, exacerbated by the pandemic, the charity had been finding it ever more challenging to get that loose change.
