Revealed: Lowest number of litter blackspots in five years – but some areas remain stubbornly dirty, new survey finds
However, north inner-city Dublin and Cork city's northside remain 'seriously littered', according to the Irish Business Against Litter (Ibal) survey.
Ibal's Conor Horgan said: 'Unfortunately litter was everywhere in the north inner city [Dublin], 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.
'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's 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.'
Dublin City Council plans to eliminate bag collections within the next year.
City residents and businesses will need to use designated bins for waste collection instead of leaving out loose plastic bags. The move is intended to create a cleaner area.
Naas in Co Kildare was top of the 40 cities and towns who have been deemed 'cleaner than European norms'.
Ennis, Co Clare, was placed second, Killarney, Co Kerry, was third and Leixlip, Co Kildare, was placed fourth.
Ibal said its latest survey showed more towns were clean than last year and the number of areas deemed littered or worse is at its lowest in five years.
In general, Dublin and Cork city centres had improved in advance of the peak season for visitors, the survey noted.
Only four areas were judged to be littered or seriously littered. Among these were Ballybane in Co Galway and Tallaght in Dublin, which suffered a dramatic fall compared to last year.
A year on from the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme, plastic bottle and can litter is down 50pc on previous levels but was still found in 20pc of more than 500 sites surveyed across the country, the survey noted.
'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 our hedgerows,' said Mr Horgan.
The litter blackspots in Dublin city were Spencer Dock, which suffered from dumping of household items; Dorset Lane, where large black sacks, a mattress and clothing items were left and the environs of the Royal Canal, where sacks of rubbish and other miscellaneous items, including tents, were among the junk found.
While the prevalence of dumped coffee cups on streets remains 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 was likely in the coming months, Ibal said.
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