Irish Towns Guide

Yet another litter survey by  IBAL  . The 2009 results were released today (Jan 4th 2010)  The  litter survey covers 60 towns with  over 6,000 population . Sites are graded by An Taisce according to international standards.

The cleanest town was Bray – whilst the two dirtiest were Limerick and Wicklow.

IBAL Anti Litter League Final Results 2009

1 Bray

2 Cavan

3 Drogheda

4 Clonmel

5 Longford

6 Wexford

7 Carlow

8 Sligo

9 Celbridge

10 Blanchardstown

11 Ballincollig

12 Dundalk

13 Mullingar

14 Trim

15 Portlaoise

16 Navan

17 Roscommon

18 Dún Laoghaire

19 Tramore

20 Shannon

21 Killarney

22 Leixlip

23 Dungarvan

24 Ballina

25 Castlebar

26 Kilkenny

27 Fermoy

28 Swords

29 Balbriggan

30 Newbridge

31 Newcastlewest

32 Midleton

33 Ashbourne

34 Thurles

35 Enniscorthy

36 Youghal

37 Monaghan

38 Lucan

39 Cobh

Moderately Littered

40 Waterford City

41 Buncrana

42 Tullamore

43 Arklow

44 Gorey

45 Galway

46 Ennis

47 Tuam

48 Tralee

49 New Ross

Littered

50 Cork City

51 Dublin City

52 Naas

53 Nenagh

Seriously Littered

54 Ballinasloe

55 Tallaght

56 Letterkenny

57 Athlone

58 Mallow

Litter Blackspots

59 Wicklow

60 Limerick City

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The IBAL 2009 results were published this week – IBAL is the Irish Business Against Litter. Certain towns are checked for litter during the year by An Taisce on behalf of IBAL . All towns in Ireland of over 6,000 inhabitants are now covered by the Anti Litter League . Sixty towns in all were surveyed – the best town (cleanest) was Wexford

Top Ten Cleanest Towns 2009

1 Wexford
2 Ennis
3 Youghal
4 Carlow
5 Dun Laoghaire
6 Swords
7 Balbriggan
8 Longford
9 Roscommon
10 Killarney
Two towns came out as the worst  in the survey this year – they were  Mallow and Athlone – both were classed as Litter Blackspots.

Arklow was the the third worst – classed as Seriously Littered .
Other towns that did badly (classed as littered)

45 Buncrana
46 Dublin City
47 Cork City
48 Limerick City
49 Nenagh
50 Naas
51 Kilkenny
52 Waterford City
53 Portlaoise
54 Trim
55 Wicklow
56 Gorey
57 Tallaght

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This site has started some discussion on a Tripadvisor Forum. See  Here
Nice to see some people looking at the site. Just to confirm – this site uses Census 2006 data mainly but is in no way connected with the CSO.
The compilation of the best and worst towns was carried out using certain data from the census . There are probably many other statistics that could be used to get a fuller more accurate picture- (if they were available) – but the census data was all that was used.
The chart is probably more of a measure of the wealth or affluence of a town rather than trying to be an accurate measure of the quality of life in these towns.

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The  IBAL released details of its final 2008 anti-litter survey of 55 Irish towns and cities which show a record 36 towns are now classed as “litter free”.Ireland’s cleanest town will be announced today from the top five who head the current league table — Cavan, Dungarvan, Fermoy, Howth and Sligo.

Cobh in Co Cork was branded the country’s dirtiest town — firmly rooted to the bottom of the league table along with Tullamore and the seaside town of Bray with all three described as “seriously littered”.

Only 50 towns were included in this survey –

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 A Litter League of all towns with more than 6000 population in Ireland had the 1st round of results published today.

The top 10 towns were

1 Ennis
2 Greystones
3 Fermoy
4 Portlaoise
5 Howth
6 Dungarvan
7 Dundalk
8 Letterkenny
9 Thurles
10 Clonmel

The litter figures are produced by ” Irish Business Against Litter ” – an alliance of companies sharing a belief that continued economic prosperity – notably in the areas of tourism, food and direct foreign investment – is contingent on a clean, litter-free environment.
As part of the IBAL Anti-Litter League, An Taisce monitors all towns of population 6,000 and over, independently in accordance with international grading standards.

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The following Irish towns have levels of THM’s which are above the current standard in the Drinking Water Regulations. These standards are being made more strict from Dec 2008 – to 100 migro grams per litre – so these water supplies will be well above the safe levels unless something is done to rectify things.  The politicians seem to be keeping quiet about this recent news from the Irish EPA )Environmental Protection Agency) .

Ennis
Ennistymon
Ballintra
Ballinasloe
Gort
Inishere
Killimor
Kinvara
Loughrea
Roundstone
Spiddal
Dingle
Clogh-Castlecomer
Inistioge
Mountmellick
Kiltimagh
East Meath
Trim
Killarney

THMs  are Cancer Group B carcinogens (shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals). Trichloromethane (chloroform) is by far the most common in most water systems. Dibromochloromethane is the most serious cancer risk, (0.6 ug/l to cause a 10-6 cancer risk increase) followed in order by Bromoform (4 ug/l), and Chloroform (6 ug/l).

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Galway residents had to suffer months of having to buy bottled water because of Cryptosporidium in their water supply for a large part of 2007. Several people became ill because of the poor water quality and tourism was badly affected. The bad news is that it could get worse for many other Irish towns.The following towns are some of the larger ones in Ireland where drinking water supplies have been identified by the Environmental Protection agency as needing improvements because thay have inadequate treatment for Cryptosporidium. (Over 184 thousand people are supplied by these sub standard water schemes).

Letterkenny
Clonmel
Kells
Oldcastle
Tipperary
Carrick-on-Suir
Castletownbere
Moate
Kenmare
Ballinalee
Edgeworthstown
Rathdrum
Graigue
Castlegregory
Rosmuc
Cleggan
Claddaghduff
Cong
Sneem

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Carrick-on-Suir was the fourth worst town in our chart of the worst place to live in Ireland . Based on census 2006 information we have compiled a top 20 list of the best and worst places to live in  Ireland. Of course people will disagree with these positions – but they are based on facts and figures like unemployment, housing, lone parents and education.At the 2006 census 2006 – the population of Carrick-on-Suir was 5906 .The unemployment rate was 9.59% -  this compares badly with a National Average of 5.92% and was the 6th highest rate of unemployment in Ireland
In Carrick-on-Suir – 6.66% of the workforce are unable to work because of disability or ill health – which is  over the national average of 4.71% .
Of those people in work – the largest proportion are employed in manufacturing (20% of the workforce) .Lone parent households in Carrick-on-Suir- make up 26.86% of all households. This is the 5th highest in Ireland and about 25% above the National average of 19.29%

Local Authority rented homes make up 15.57% of the dwelling units in Carrick-on-Suir – the ninth highest percentage in Ireland.
Rented homes make up 34.45% of all homes in Carrick-on-Suir – slightly above the average for Ireland of 28.1%.
28% of occupied houses in Carrick-on-Suir are owned outright – with no mortgage outstanding – the same as the average for Ireland as a whole.

Heating: 10.93% of all dwellings in Carrick-on-Suir have no central heating – which is aroud the same as the rest of the country (10.22%).
I.T. : 40.98% of households own personal computers in Carrick-on-Suir – compared to 53.3% nationally. Only 13.6% had broadband at the last census – much lower than the Irish average at the time of 20.18% . Also – 67.4% of homes had no internet access at all in Carrick-on-Suir – compared to the average of 51%

Education : 22.43% of the people living in Carrick-on-Suir – only went as far as primary school or had no formal education at all. This is very close to 40% above the national average of 16.72%.
People with a third level degree or a higher qualification – make up just 6.76% of the Carrick-on-Suir workforce – which is less than half the national average of 16.57%

Community involvement in Carrick-on-Suir is just below the average for the country. In Carrick-on-Suir 15.3% of the over 15s said they carry out some sort of voluntary work compared to the national average of 15.42%

The percentage of people with a disability in Carrick-on-Suir is above the national average of 9.8% at 12.2%.

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Most of the date used on this site is from the Census – but a recent interesting  litter survey was published on all towns in Ireland with more than 6000 population.
The littering survey ranked the 50 towns in order of cleanest first, The full table is shown below (From the Irish Business Against Litter). Sligo came out worst (dirtiest) and Dundalk came out the best (cleanest)

1. Dundalk “Litter Free”
2. Cavan “Litter Free”
3. Fermoy “Litter Free”
4. Trim “Litter Free”
5. Killarney “Litter Free”
6. Monaghan “Litter Free”
7. Carlow “Litter Free”
8. Galway City “Litter Free”
9. Youghal “Litter Free”
10. Bray “Litter Free”
11. Letterkenny “Litter Free”
12. Ballina “Litter Free”
13. Naas “Litter Free”
14. Roscommon “Litter Free”
15. Thurles “Litter Free”
16. Drogheda “Litter Free”
17. Athy “Litter Free”
18. Waterford City “Litter Free”
19. Midleton “Litter Free”
20. Wexford “Litter Free”
21. Arklow “Litter Free”
22. Castlebar “Litter Free”

23. Swords “Moderately Littered”
24. Ballinasloe “Moderately Littered”
25. Maynooth “Moderately Littered”
26. Kilkenny “Moderately Littered”
27. Greystones “Moderately Littered”
28. Tralee “Moderately Littered”
29. Portlaoise “Moderately Littered”
30. Gorey “Moderately Littered”
31. Ennis “Moderately Littered”
32. Leixlip “Moderately Littered”
33. Longford “Moderately Littered”
34. Limerick City “Moderately Littered”
35. Cobh “Moderately Littered”
36. Clonmel “Moderately Littered”

37. Dungarvan “Littered”
38. Wicklow “Littered”
39. Tullamore “Littered”
40. Mullingar “Littered”
41. Newbridge “Littered”
42. Navan “Littered”

43. Athlone “Seriously Littered”
44. Dun Laoghaire “Seriously Littered”
45. Cork City “Seriously Littered”
46. Enniscorthy “Seriously Littered”

47. Mallow “Litter Blackspot”
48. Tallaght “Litter Blackspot”
49. Nenagh “Litter Blackspot”
50. Sligo “Litter Blackspot”

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We have carried out detailed analysis of census statistics from all the towns in Ireland with more than 1500 people. Based on that information we have compiled a top twenty of the best and worst towns in Ireland.

Longford Town came out second worst (just behind Rathnew).

At the last census in 2006 – the population of Longford Town was 8836
Unemployment was 11.14% the highest in Ireland at the time and almost double the – National Average of 5.92%)
5.5% of the workforce are unable to work because of disability or ill health – which is also more than the national average of 4.71%
Of those working – the majority work in manufacturing or sales (25% of the workforce) .

Lone parent households -make up 27.12% of those in Longford – which is the third highest in Ireland just behind Tipperary and Cashel .
Local Authority rented homes make up 19.3% of the dwelling units in Longford – the second highest in Ireland just behind Rathnew. Rented homes make up 47% of housing units in Longford – the most in all the towns in the survey and way above the average of 28.1%.
22.3% of homes in Longford are owned outright – with no mortgage outstanding . This compares with an average of 28% across Ireland as a whole.
Residents of Traveller ethnic origin make up 4.6% of Longford’s population – the eighth highest percentage in any town over 10000 population.

Central Heating – 17.92% of all dwellings in Longford have no central heating – which is 70% worse than the average for the country as a whole (10.22%).

Education : 20% of the people living in Longford – who have completed their education  – only went as far as primary school or had no formal education at all. This is about 25% above the national average of 16.72%

Community involvement in Longford is about the same as the average for the country . In Longford 15.49 % of the over 15s carry out some sort of voluntary work compared to the national average of 15.42%

The percentage of retired people though – is below the average of 11.05% at 8.84%.

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