Tourists touch down to city's dirtiest streets

Claire Murphy

DUBLIN is facing a battle in the war on litter, with a number of blackspots hightlighted.

Large parts of the capital, including the seaside town of Dun Laoghaire, have cleaned up their act according to the latest litter survey.

However, the north inner city and areas around the airport still face a major challenge to bring the problem under control.

Dublin city's main thoroughfare O'Connell Street has been given the thumbs up after a survey by the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL).

However, the areas around the capital's main street have been found to be neglected in favour of high-profile spots, such as Grafton Street and St Stephen's Green.

Dirty

And the approach roads around Dublin Airport, the first place viewed by tourists arriving by airplane, and north inner city streets are officially the dirtiest places in the country.

There is "constant litter" on view for thousands of tourists in the dirty old town and An Taisce, which carried out the survey for IBAL said that the streets were in an "even worse state in 2012".

IBAL chairman Tom Cavanagh said tourists and locals don't have to venture far from O'Connell Street before they are confronted with "constant litter, dog fouling and neglect". "The business people and residents of these areas deserve better from their authority," he said.

The roads surrounding Dublin Airport were spoiled by dumping, casual litter and "all manner of rubbish", in stark contrast to the grounds of the country's main airport which were described as "immaculate". But, the suburbs of Swords and Dun Laoghaire rank in 13th and 14th spots as being cleaner than the norm in Europe.

Just 18 made it to the list to be rated as 'cleaner than European norms'. Bray, Naas and Kildare are also all listed as clean to European norms.

And there was a turnaround for Tallaght, which was previously "moderately littered" and has now improved to "clean to European norms" in the latest survey.

However, Cavan is officially Ireland's cleanest town, followed closely by Kilkenny and Longford in the survey of 42 towns and cities survey. In its latest nationwide survey, the group deemed 76pc of cities and towns to be clean.

In general it is good news for Ireland -- a total of 43pc of Irish towns and cities cleaner than the European average.

Dr Cavanagh said: "This was something we could not have dared to hope for just a few years back."