'It is encouraging to see areas like Mahon in Cork making the grade, having fallen short in recent years'
The spotless Gerry O'Sullivan park in Churchfield/Gurranbraher in Cork's northside. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
Cork city centre has cleaned up its act but the northside of the city has become “seriously littered”, a new survey has found.
Furthermore, it found that despite the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme for plastic bottles and cans, such waste is still visible in many parts of the country.
Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) said more towns are clean now compared to last year, with the number of areas deemed littered or worse at its lowest in five years.
However, while main streets are generally clean, litter is most likely to be found in residential areas, bus and train stations, and recycling facilities.
“It is particularly encouraging to see areas like Roscommon town and Mahon in Cork making the grade, having fallen short in recent years,” said IBAL’s Conor Horgan.
“Another positive finding was that our main city centres — Dublin and Cork — have improved as we welcome summer visitors to our country.
"Clean streets are imperative, given the challenges facing Ireland as a high-cost destination.”
In top spot in the survey was Naas, followed by Ennis and Killarney.
Other areas deemed “cleaner than European norms” included Leixlip, Monaghan, Sligo, Tullamore, Waterford City, and Wicklow.
On the other hand, places deemed to be moderately littered included the area around Dublin Airport, Limerick city centre, Fermoy, and Dublin city centre. The only parts of the country deemed seriously littered were Cork’s northside and Dublin’s north inner city.
In the case of the northside of Cork City, IBAL said: “By far the most heavily littered sites included waste ground at Fairfield Meadows, vacant site — North Monastery Rd, St Mary’s Rd, and Gerald Griffin Ave, No.7 Pophams Rd, and No.39 and No.40 Cathedral Walk.
It was second worst only to Dublin’s north inner city, with the survey finding black spots such as Spencer Dock and around the Royal Canal.
IBAL said a plan by Dublin City Council to eliminate bag collections is essential for this part of the capital to clean up its act.
Mr Horgan said: “Unfortunately, litter was everywhere in the north inner city, in stark contrast to the city centre just a few streets away.
"The negative impact of waste collection by bags instead of bins appears greater than ever, with scavenging by gulls a persistent problem.
“In addition, it is high time that appropriate legal changes were brought into effect to allow the council to pursue those responsible for littered basements, an age-old blight on our capital city.”
One year on from the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme, IBAL said plastic bottle and can litter is down 50% on previous levels but such waste was still found in one fifth of the 500-plus areas surveyed across the country.
Mr Horgan added: “We hope the scheme will see the disappearance of this litter but statistics so far do not bear this out.
"Cans and plastic bottles are far from a rare sight on our streets and in hedgerows.”
