Dublin one of Europe's dirtiest cities

Dublin is one of the dirtiest cities in Europe, ranking behind nine other major European cities, according to the latest survey from anti-litter group Irish Businesses Against Litter and An Taisce.

The survey found that Dublin had dirtier streets than Riga, Vienna, Strasbourg, Cologne, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Zürich, Stockholm and Amsterdam, despite having a higher cost of living than most of these cities.

Dublin was found to have the "highest number of areas with serious litter problems"; while some of Dublin's main streets were only lightly littered, its side streets and the general quantity of litter brought down its result. The areas surrounding O'Connell Street, St Stephen's Green, Christ Church Cathedral, the Guinness Hopstore, Temple Bar and Heuston Station all had serious litter problems, the survey said.

"Dublin is a thriving, modern European city with a global reputation, a very high cost of living, but a chronic litter problem," the chairman of Irish Businesses Against Litter, Dr Tom Cavanagh, said. "There is so much money being spent on redeveloping the city, but not enough spent on keeping it clean."

Failure to enforce litter fines were a large part of the reason why Dublin was so dirty, Dr Cavanagh said.

"Businesses in particular are not being held accountable for the litter outside their premises as the Litter Act states, and we call on the Minister for the Environment to address this, along with the Dublin City manager.

"Enforcement does not add to the cost. On the contrary, it should be a source of revenue."

Riga was top of the European anti-litter league table and was declared a "clean" city. "The overall impression was of a city which was in spotless condition not just in the main areas, but also the environs," the survey said.

Amsterdam and Dublin were both branded "littered" cities. In Vienna, which came second in the survey and was also declared "clean", 30 new litter sheriffs have recently been appointed to enforce litter fines.

Chewing gum litter was identified as the biggest problem in all cities. A tax should be introduced on all non-biodegradable chewing gum, the proceeds of which should go straight to local authorities to clean the gum from their streets, Dr Cavanagh said.

"This is in the keeping with the policy of the polluter pays, which is the backbone of all environmental legislation in Europe."