A DUBLIN city business body has called on a Government department to reconsider its funding for an annual anti-litter survey, claiming the findings are “deeply misleading”.
The Dublin City Business Improvement District was responding following the announcement yesterday of the Irish Business Against Litter (Ibal) awards for 2011.
Dublin’s north inner city was named as one of two litter “blackspots”, along with Knocknaheeny in Cork. Trim, Co Meath, was named Ireland’s cleanest town in the survey of litter levels in 53 towns and cities.
Criticising the results, the Dublin business body claimed Ibal had presented “misleading and untrue information” on the cleanliness of the city centre and had included residential areas in its survey.
The business body said the results jeopardised tourism revenues and jobs in the city at “an already vulnerable time”.
Chief executive Richard Guiney said the majority of Dublin’s main tourist areas were recorded as clean.
“While there are areas outside the Business Improvement District area which are regarded as unclean, we note again that these are mainly in private or residential areas – for example in basements which cleaning organisations cannot access,” Mr Guiney said.
He asked the Department of the Environment to consider its support of and funding for Ibal, based on what he said were “continuous inaccuracies”.
He further asked that the department and other supporters of the litter group, such as the Irish Hotels Federation, “re-examine the methodologies used to conduct these surveys as well as the areas being surveyed”.
Chairman of Ibal Dr Tom Cavanagh defended the survey, saying standard EU methodology was used to conduct it. For the past three or four years, the main shopping areas of Dublin such as Grafton Street were “perfect” in terms of their standard of cleanliness. But there were areas close to tourist attractions such as the Pro Cathedral which were littered. The Department of the Environment gave €70,000 to Ibal last year. It said no decision had yet been taken on 2012 support.
Nine towns were given a “sustained excellence” award for remaining litter-free for five years in a row.
The others, apart from Trim, were Killarney, Cavan, Youghal, Fermoy, Castlebar, Ballina, Monaghan and Dundalk.
Cork city, Mallow, Navan, Gorey, Carlow, Limerick city, Dublin Airport’s environs, Tuam and Tallaght were in the “moderately littered” category.