Here is where the cleanest town and city is in Ireland

Fermoy is the cleanest town in Ireland, with Waterford taking the crown for the country’s most litter-free city, according to an annual survey by national trust An Taisce.

However Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) has warned that disadvantaged areas continue to appear at the bottom of its league table on an annual basis.

This year, IBAL found 10 towns and cities are littered, moderately littered, or seriously littered when compared to European norms.

Ballymun in Dublin, Mahon and the Northside of Cork City (Littered), Ballybane in Galway, and Dublin’s North Inner City (Seriously Littered), were the five worst offenders.

“Three years ago we deliberately shone a spotlight on specific city areas in the hope that the attention would spur councils and communities into action,” Conor Horgan of IBAL said.

It is fair to say we have seen no noticeable improvement in any of these areas — nor have we seen much by way of substantial measures to turn them around,” he said.

Inspectors ranked Dublin’s North Inner City as the worst of the 40 participating locations, and found litter blackspots on Oriel Street, Dunne Street, Sherrard Street Lr and Railway Street.

In Ballybane, surveyors said Fana Glas was a litter blackspot, where “an air of neglect pervaded throughout” and said communal areas were “in very poor condition”.

Ballymun’s showing in 36th position was a result of dumping and burnt items at the former Towers and recycling facility at the Shopping Centre.

The report on Cork’s Northside said the North Ring Road is ‘almost landfill-like’ in places and warned “long-term littered sites that have been repeatedly highlighted in previous surveys are not being dealt with.”

Surveyors inspecting The Maples in Mahon said it was “not just littered but subject to dumping with soiled nappies strewn about. There were very heavy levels of all manner of litter throughout.”

Mr Horgan said the historic development of large areas of social housing “has shaped a ‘them and us’ society and the gap is widening. Litter is a symptom of a greater malaise and keeping these areas as clean and well presented as the rest of a city would over time have significant benefits. We need local authorities to take the lead.”

A total of 17 locations were found to be clean to European norms, while 13 were determined to be “cleaner than European norms” — with Fermoy beating Athlone, Killarney, Naas, and Navan to the top spot.

The Cork town last achieved success in 2007, and will mark the achievement with a specially commissioned public sculpture worth €40,000.