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Kildare named as Ireland's cleanest town

Kildare took top spot at the awards ceremony
Kildare took top spot at the awards ceremony

Kildare town has been named as the cleanest town in Ireland by the Irish Business Against Litter group.

The announcement was made in Dublin's Merrion Hotel, with Kildare pipping Roscommon town and Ashbourne in Co Meath to the title.

Waterford city came in fourth place.

A sculpture will be commissioned for the town to mark the achievement.

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The announcement comes as IBAL says litter levels are on the rise nationally.

40 towns and cities were surveyed by An Taisce for the IBAL, and 70% were found to be clean to European norms.

But that figure represents a 15% drop compared to just two years ago.

Once again the study found no litter blackspots, but three urban areas were deemed "seriously littered" - Galvone in Limerick, Farranree in Cork and Dublin's north inner city.

Dublin city centre and Limerick city have both slipped in ranking, and are classified alongside Galway as "moderately littered".

Last year's overall winner Longford finished 15th in the table this year.

IBAL says the problem has become less about cleaning up dropped litter, and more about tackling illegal dumping on derelict sites by people trying to avoid bin charges. 

IBAL spokesperson Conor Horgan said there was a disappointing deterioration in Dublin and Limerick, even in high footfall tourist spots such as Temple Bar.

This year a number of areas that are not on the common radar, such as Galvone, were surveyed, he added.

Mr Horgan said this decision was taken because some areas that are off the beaten track are sometimes ignored and they want to put the local authorities under pressure to fix them.