Ireland is cleaning up its act as more towns throughout the country are cleaner than last year.
Additionally areas seen as littered or worse is at its lowest in five years, according to the latest report from Irish Business against litter.
Letterkenny is ranked 13th out of 40 towns surveyed, and deemed to be clean to European norms.
Dublin’s Inner City and Cork’s Northside have deteriorated and are still deemed as seriously littered, while Naas in Co.Kildare came out tops once again as one of the cleanest towns in Ireland.
Sligo was ranked 6th.
IBAL Chair Conor Horgan says Letterkenny’s performance was excellent, with only one heavily littered area…………
Letterkenny statement in full –
Letterkenny is clean as litter survey shows cleaner towns await our
summer visitors
Main city centres are clean for peak tourist season
Plastic bottles and cans remain, despite Deposit Return Scheme
The latest survey from business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) reveals
Letterkenny is ‘Clean to European Norms” and in 13th spot in the ranking of 40
towns and cities across Ireland.
The An Taisce report for Letterkenny stated: “A very strong performance by Letterkenny,
with five top-ranking sites, four sites just shy of top ranking and just one seriously littered.
Ballyboe – Glencar Park is a lovely park environment which was excellent with regards to litter.
Other top ranking sites included Upper Main Street, Pinehill Business Park and Deposit
Return Scheme at Letterkenny Retail Park. By far the most heavily littered site surveyed was
the Recycle Facility at Aura Leisure – this presented very poorly and will likely deteriorate
further, if not addressed.”
Overall, two-thirds of towns were clean, which was up on 2024. Naas was once
again top of the ranking of 40 towns and cities, ahead of Ennis and Killarney. Only 4
areas were branded littered or seriously littered – the lowest number on 5 years.
Both Dublin and Cork city centres have improved in advance of the peak season for
visitors.
“It is encouraging to see 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,” says
IBAL’s Conor Horgan
Dublin’s North Inner City, seriously littered, remains rooted to the foot of the rankings.
Conor Horgan comments: “No progress is likely in the North Inner City without a ban
on bags. We need the Council to come good on its intention to convert the entire city
to bin collection services. 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, plastic bottle and
can litter is down 50% on previous levels but was still found in 20% of the 500-plus
sites surveyed across the country. "We hope that 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 our hedgerows," says Conor
Horgan.
While the prevalence of coffee cups on our streets remains stubbornly high, there
was a fall-off in disposable vape litter. The UK and Northern Ireland outlawed
disposable vapes earlier this month and a ban here is likely in the coming months.
The survey found the main streets of towns to be generally clean, as were heritage
and amenity sites. Residential areas, bus and train stations and recycle facilities
were most likely to be littered.
