A survey has found that Dublin's north inner city is seriously littered due in part to the widespread use of bags over bins in domestic waste collection there.
Ballymun was designated a litter blackspot in the survey by business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL).
Litter levels were assessed in 40 towns and cities across the country by An Taisce, which found 31 of them, to be clean.
It found that Dublin, Galway and Cork city centres, along with Kilkenny and Killarney registered record levels of cleanliness.
IBAL said that changing domestic waste collection from plastic bags to bins could significantly improve cleanliness in Dublin's north inner city.
IBAL spokesperson Conor Horgan said bins are a neater and more hygienic solution to bags, which are often "left out for long periods on the street and attract other people's waste".
He said bins are also "prey to the growing problem of gulls or vermin damaging them in the search for food".
Kilkenny came out top of the list for the fifth time in the survey’s 17-year history, with Athlone, Killarney, Portlaoise and Tralee rounding out the top five.
The survey also graded Gorey in Co Wexford along with Carlow town, Ballybeg in Waterford city and Limerick city centre as "moderately littered".
Mahon in Cork city, Cork Northside and Galvone in Limerick city were designated as "littered."
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IBAL said Limerick city's rating was brought down by dumping in the basements of Cecil Street and an area at Upper William Street, which it described as "filthy, one of the worst sites in a city centre environment."
A house on Seville Place in Dublin was used as a dumping ground, with "a mattress and all manner of rubbish" present, while a car park at Lakelands View in Mahon in Cork was "in a shocking state, clearly used as a dumping ground for domestic rubbish … soiled nappies and several dozen black sacks".
Dublin's new Lord Mayor Paul McAuliffe said rubbish collection bags are used for a practical reason.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, the Fianna Fáil councillor said many homes in the north and south inner city do not have a secure place to store wheelie bins, and therefore rubbish bags are necessary.
He said littering is mainly caused by illegal dumping, and that needs to be clamped down on.
"It's caused by people who don't care about their neighbours or community, and we need to make sure that Dublin City Council has the tools at its disposal to investigate illegal dumping, because it's a scourge on our city," he said.
He said that, as Lord Mayor, he will be meeting with the heads of various departments in Dublin City Council to address the issue.
