Europe-linked litter survey could impact on Dublin’s image abroad

DUBLIN’S multi-million tourist industry is on the line under the terms of a new European-wide litter survey.

The Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) organisation confirmed yesterday that its litter league is expanding to compare the capital’s litter status with that of nine top European cities.

The survey will also include the cities’ approach to roads.

The results, which rank cities on their litter-free status, will be published in each of the countries taking part, IBAL chairman, Dr Tom Cavanagh, said.

The new move could have serious implications for Dublin’s image abroad, he warned.

“We are very worried that this could damage the city’s tourism industry. But we think it’s worth the risk,” he said.

“For Dublin to be as good as the European cities taking part, we are expecting a significant change. They’ve known about this development for about six months, but we still haven’t seen a huge change.”

Teams of IBAL surveyors will begin their work of continuous assessment from June 1. The same teams who survey Dublin will also survey the litter status of Stockholm, Riga, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Strasbourg, Zurich, Vienna, Barcelona and Cologne.

The results are expected towards the end of the year and league tables will be published by the Government departments responsible for litter control in each of the cities.

As a result, Dublin has been removed from IBAL’s national litter league, increasing the pressure on Cork city, which will now be the largest survey area by population.

IBAL launched its litter league six years ago to embarrass local authorities into fulfilling their legal responsibilities to keep streets litter-free.

Mr Cavanagh said European cities were used as the benchmark.

“Six years on, Irish town centres and city centres are nearly as clean as European standards,” he said.

“But there are two aspects that we feel we have made little progress on — Dublin and rural Ireland. They are the exceptions. Rural Ireland is getting worse.”

Mr Cavanagh called on the Government to get serious on litter prevention, hire more litter wardens and enforce existing litter laws.