Businesses praise towns for cleaning up their act

Irish businesses have lauded towns across the country for cleaning up their act and keeping streets free of litter.

Major cities, including Dublin, Cork, Waterford, and Limerick, were all deemed to match European standards or better them in the latest Irish Business Against Litter (Ibal) league table.

Almost half of the 42 places inspected were said to be cleaner than European standards.

These outnumbered the 10 towns, including Galway City, Ennis, and Midleton, which were at leastmoderately littered when the An Taisce inspection team visited.

Cavan was judged to be the most spotless population centre in the country.

And just one location, Dublin’s north inner city, was said to be a litter black spot.

Ibal’s Tom Cavanagh said previously that the shopping districts in Dublin and Cork had lagged behind European standards and that this created a bad impression for tourists.

However, he said both areas were now clean, and his organisation singled out Parnell St in the capital for particular praise.

“The majority of Irish towns have been clean for a number of years now,” said Dr Cavanagh.

“Most tourists visiting them, however, were being confronted with litter in Dublin and Cork, creating a poor first impression of our country. Only now can we really promote Ireland as being genuinely clean.”

In Dublin, issues around the collection of domestic waste appeared to have impacted on results for northside neighbourhoods.

The business group also looked at specific types of locations in each of the towns surveyed. It found recycling centres, which are managed by local authorities, were still problematic and 70% of the bring bank sites examined were littered.