Fermoy, Co Cork was yesterday named the most clean and litter-free town in the State, just pipping Dundalk to the title.
The accolade was announced at a ceremony in Dublin, which also heard there had been "dramatic" improvements in litter levels generally across the State.
The survey, of 53 towns and urban areas in the State, carried out by An Taisce, found the three cleanest towns to be Fermoy, followed by Dundalk, Co Louth and Greystones, Co Wicklow.
However, Dr Tom Cavanagh, chairman of Irish Business Against Litter (Ibal), which commissioned the survey, said the managers of Dublin city would "have to get around the table now and see what has to be done to get to grips with the litter situation in the capital".
Though most of the State is getting cleaner, Dublin city appears to be getting worse, having dropped back six places from its ranking last year. It has been deemed a "litter blackspot" in the anti-litter league survey and ranked last of the areas inspected.
"It is incredible to see nearly half of the areas surveyed reaching 'litter free' status but disappointing that our capital city is so far behind the rest of the country and doesn't seem to be improving," said Dr Cavanagh.
He said next year Dublin would not be included in the survey but would instead be singled out for comparison with the most clean European cities.
"There is no reason why Dublin should not be as clean as the cleaner European cities of similar size," he said.
Also named as litter blackspots were Navan, Co Meath and Naas and Maynooth, Co Kildare.
Dr Cavanagh said he was in no doubt this situation could be turned around. "Cost just isn't an excuse here. The Minister has ample means at hand through the recently increased levies on plastic bags to finance the maintenance of a clean capital."
"There has been an enormous improvement in the rest of the country compared with six years ago when we started this. Then people said the Irish were just dirty and careless and it has been shown that with good management and commitment, first by the local authorities and then by the citizens the improvements can be made."
The survey of litter levels found the average Irish litter level was now "just three percentage points away from the European litter norm of 80 points".
"This is a huge improvement since 2002, when the survey began, and the average town in Ireland was classed as a 'litter blackspot'," said a spokeswoman for Ibal.
An Taisce picked out Youghal, Co Cork, Bray, Co Wicklow and Clonmel, Co Tipperary as areas that had demonstrated "spectacular improvements in recent years" to reach their current "litter free" status.
Nearly half of all areas were classed as "litter free", including Galway city, Cork city and Waterford city. Limerick city was deemed to be "moderately littered".
Chewing gum was once again a major source of litter, said Dr Cavanagh. He criticised plans from Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche to launch a publicity campaign on chewing gum littering, calling it "weak" and suggested a more effective way would be a levy on gum manufacturers towards the cleaning of gum from the streets. He said Dublin City Council had spent €40,000 cleaning gum last year from Grafton Street alone.
