€15m committed to improving Dublin streets

A total of €15m will be spent cleaning, improving security patrols and landscaping on more than 100 of Dublin's busiest streets, it was announced today.

A new five-year plan devised by the city's business chiefs has been drawn up to beat the economic downturn by attracting shoppers, tourists and traders into the capital.

Borrowing the idea from American cities including New York and Philadelphia, the country's first Business Improvement District (BID) aims to make the city a place people flock to.

Richard Guiney, Dublin city centre BID chief executive, said the scheme will bring the city's best-known streets up to a top class standard.

"We don't have the same crime issues as somewhere like Times Square or massive cleanliness problems," he said.

"But we want to see all the streets being maintained to the same level as Grafton Street and O'Connell Street which are always clean."

Mr Guiney said it was vital to attract shoppers, business people and tourists into the city during the continuing slump.

"This is a more economically challenging time and the more we can do to make Dublin a natural choice for people to come the better," he said.

"We can all do it working together to make it a place where people come to do their shopping and do business."

Some €1m will be ploughed into general cleaning services such as chewing gum and graffiti removal and mechanical street washing.

The plan has already sprung into action with seven full-time street ambassadors monitoring cleanliness, looking at security issues and identifying areas where improvements can be made.

The BID area includes 115 streets from Parnell Street to St Stephen's Green and from South Great George's Street to Talbot Street.