Cork’s northside and Dublin’s north inner city have been identified as the State’s dirtiest locations in the latest Irish Business Against Litter (Ibal) survey.
Cleanliness in the centres of both cities was deemed to have improved since the last survey, with the number of areas considered “dirty or littered” falling to its lowest number in five years in the ranking of 40 Irish towns and cities.
Overall, two-thirds of towns were clean, an improvement on last year.
Naas in Co Kildare retains top spot as Ireland’s cleanest town, followed by Ennis, Killarney, Leixlip, Monaghan, Sligo, Tullamore, Waterford city and Wicklow, which are all “cleaner than European norms”.
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But Dublin’s north inner city, the dirtiest area in the State last year, has deteriorated even further, Ibal said, and has been joined by Cork’s northside, with both deemed “seriously littered”.
Those two locations along with Ballybane, Galway, and Tallaght, Dublin, are the only four areas described as “seriously littered”. Ibal said conditions in Ballybane and Tallaght had suffered a dramatic deterioration.
Scavenging seagulls remain a persistent problem and Ibal spokesman Conor Horgan warned no progress was likely in Dublin’s north inner city “without a ban” on refuse in bags.
A ban on the use of plastic bin bags came into force on 90 streets in Dublin’s south inner city on January 1st. It is due to be extended to streets in the north inner city by midyear.
Mr Horgan said litter was everywhere in north inner city Dublin which was a “stark contrast to the city centre just a few streets away”.
“In addition, it is high time that appropriate legal changes were brought into effect to allow the council to pursue those responsible for littered basements, an age-old blight on our capital city,” he said.
The survey, conducted by An Taisce inspectors for Ibal, found the environs of Dublin Airport, normally clean, to be “moderately littered”.
Following the introduction of the deposit return scheme a year ago, plastic bottle and can litter is down 50 per cent on previous levels, but some was found in 20 per cent of the 500-plus sites surveyed.
The prevalence of coffee cups as litter also “remains stubbornly high”, Mr Horgan said, but there was a fall-off in disposable vape litter.
Areas like Roscommon town and Mahon in Cork were among towns making the grade as “clean to European norms” and Ibal said this was very encouraging as they had “fallen short in recent years”.
There were also considerable improvements on Middle Abbey Street, O’Connell Street, North Frederick Street and beside the Jervis Luas stop, sites previously deemed heavily littered.
But dumping on Dominic Lane and a littered basement on Parnell Square prevented the capital from attaining “clean” status, Ibal said.
