16 out of 40 towns surveyed in Ireland were deemed to be “cleaner than European norms”.

Tullamore in Offaly was deemed to be the tidiest of 40 towns surveyed in Ireland as part of the latest survey by business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL). Dublin Airport (deemed a “litter black spot” when first surveyed five years ago), Leixlip, Roscommon and Longford also ranked highly in what was deemed to be Ireland’s best performance in the 16 years since IBAL have been conducting these surveys. Of 40 towns and cities assessed by An Taisce, 80% of areas were found to be clean, with a top tier of 16 towns deemed “cleaner than European norms”. Over 90% of all rural towns surveyed were deemed clean, while Dublin, Cork and Galway city centres all scored well in the ranking. Not for the first time, there was a wide gap between towns and disadvantaged city areas, with the latter occupying the bottom six places in the ranking, with IBAL attributing litter problems in those areas to a lack of community involvement. Galvone in Limerick City ranked bottom of the list having been deemed to be “seriously littered”, Dublin’s North Inner City and Cork’s North City were deemed to be “littered”, while Limerick City, Mahon (Cork City), Ballymun, Castlebar and Tralee were all deemed to be “moderately littered”. “In the 16 years we have been conducting these surveys, this is possibly our best result,” said Conor Horgan of IBAL. “Across the board we have seen improvements. The news is all the more positive given the importance of how we present our country over the summer months, when we attract over 40% of our visitors. "Also satisfying is the pristine state of the roads around Dublin Airport, which help form a first impression for many of these visitors.” Commenting on the areas ranked at the bottom of the list, Horgan said: “We haven’t seen as much improvement in these social housing areas, where communities are often transient, social neglect is evident, and community groups and tidy towns committees are lacking compared to in mixed communities. “Without these volunteer forces supporting the efforts of the council, these areas will simply not be clean on a sustained basis.” Dumping was identified as an issue in Dublin’s North Inner City and in Galvone in Limerick in particular, with Horgan pointing out that it was likely to become an even bigger problem due to the increasing cost of waste disposal. Horgan also said that marine litter (littering on beaches) was a cause of great concern. “Be it in cities or in towns, we enjoy a much cleaner environment than 15 years ago, but litter has not gone away,” he added. “This summer we again had examples of extreme littering on beaches for examples, which display a worrying indifference to the natural environment. Marine litter is a source of great concern at present and an issue IBAL may concentrate more on in the future. “Also, dumping is on the increase, and the more we ask people to pay for waste disposal the greater an issue it is likely to become. It may not be as widespread, but dumping is the new litter in many respects.” You can see the ranking in full below.

2017 IBAL ANTI-LITTER LEAGUE – 1st ROUND RESULT

1 Tullamore Cleaner than European Norms 2 Dublin Airport Environs Cleaner than European Norms T3 Leixlip Cleaner than European Norms T3 Roscommon Cleaner than European Norms 5 Longford Cleaner than European Norms T6 Clonmel Cleaner than European Norms T6 Ennis Cleaner than European Norms 8 Killarney Cleaner than European Norms 9 Kildare Cleaner than European Norms 10 Ballybeg (Waterford City) Cleaner than European Norms T11 Navan Cleaner than European Norms T11 Waterford City Cleaner than European Norms 13 Balbriggan Cleaner than European Norms 14 Drogheda Cleaner than European Norms 15 Kilkenny Cleaner than European Norms 16 Thomondgate (Limerick City) Cleaner than European Norms 17 Athlone Clean to European Norms 18 Carlow Clean to European Norms T19 Mallow Clean to European Norms T19 Monaghan Clean to European Norms T19 Portlaoise Clean to European Norms 22 Tallaght Clean to European Norms 23 Cork City Centre Clean to European Norms 24 Ballybane (Galway City) Clean to European Norms 25 Letterkenny Clean to European Norms T26 Wexford Clean to European Norms T26 Galway City Clean to European Norms 28 Dublin City Centre Clean to European Norms 29 Cavan Clean to European Norms 30 Dundalk Clean to European Norms 31 Sligo Clean to European Norms 32 Bray Clean to European Norms 33 Tralee Moderately littered 34 Castlebar Moderately littered 35 Ballymun Moderately littered 36 Mahon (Cork City) Moderately littered 37 Limerick City Moderately littered 38 Cork North City Littered 39 Dublin North Inner City Littered 40 Galvone (Limerick City) Seriously littered