The grime capital of Ireland...

DUBLIN'S north inner city is one of the dirtiest areas of the country when it comes to litter, a new survey has found.

- BY PAT FLANAGAN

And Cork's northside is not much better as both are described as “seriously littered” in the latest survey by the group, Irish Business Against Litter.

But on the plus side, the study found that more towns are clean than last year and the number of areas deemed littered or worse is at its lowest in five years.

While Dublin and Cork city centres have improved in advance of the peak season for visitors, the capital's north inner city and Cork’s northside have both deteriorated and are “seriously littered”.

The IBAL survey found that Naas was once again top of the ranking of 40 towns and cities, ahead of Ennis and Killarney.

Overall, two-thirds of towns were clean, which was up on 2024 with only four areas branded littered or seriously littered, among them Ballybane in Galway and Tallaght in Dublin, which suffered a dramatic fall on last year.

“It is particularly encouraging to see areas like Roscommon town and Mahon in Cork making the grade, having fallen short in recent years” IBAL spokesman Conor Horgan said.

He added: “Another positive finding was that our main city centres - Dublin and Cork - have improved as we welcome summer visitors to our country.