Dublin's North Inner City has been branded 'seriously littered', coming bottom in the IBAL rankings of 40 towns and cities.
The area recorded its worst score in years according to the final survey for 2019 from business group Irish Business Against Litter.
Swords was among the cleanest towns and cities in the country, coming in 3rd position.
The Dublin Airport Environs were found to be clean to European norms, as was Dun Laoghaire and Dublin City Centre.
However Tallaght tumbled down the rankings and was rated ‘moderately littered’ while Ballymun improved but was ‘littered’ and came in 38th position.
Kilkenny topped the IBAL litter rankings for a record 4th time, having last won in 2014.
An Taisce, who conduct the surveys on behalf of IBAL, praised the popular tourist attractions of Christchurch Cathedral, Trinity College, Guinness Storehouse, Garden of Remembrance and main shopping streets as “excellent”.
By contrast, the report for the North Inner City stated “The dearth of clean sites in this area was striking. Dumping was evident in the worst sites, among them Aldborough Place, Crinian Strand, Great Clarence Street, North and the Railway line, North Strand Road.”
“There is a glaring disparity in cleanliness between the North Inner City and Dublin City Centre. While we are talking in very positive terms about our cities generally, the picture presented by the North Inner City is quite a grim one” it went on to say.
