Galway has moved into the top ten of clean urban areas in the country — but Ballybane remains a blackspot, the latest national litter survey revealed this week.

The survey from business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) says that Galway City is ‘Cleaner than European Norms’ in 10th spot in the ranking of 40 towns and cities across Ireland, a rise of one position on last year.

Meanwhile, Ballybane is again ranked as Littered towards the foot of the table, placed 37th of 40 locations surveyed by An Taisce on behalf of IBAL.

The report says that what it labels ‘Galway City Centre’ — even though it includes areas from Salthill Prom to the R338 road to Oranmore — again scored very well, with 16 out of 25 sites getting the top litter grade and there were just two seriously littered ones.

Top ranking sites included the Galway Famine Ship Memorial off Grattan Road, Galway Shopping Centre, IDA Galway Business Park in Dangan and The Prom.

“These sites were not just good with regards to litter, but overall presentation and maintenance was excellent.”

But, the report adds: “Galway Regional Hospital continues to be plagued by heavy levels of cigarette butts (and lower levels of food related litter). The South Park Jetty [Nimmos Pier] was heavily littered.”

The An Taisce report for Ballybane said: “There was little improvement in Ballybane. As a general note, extensive works / road works were noted at a couple of sites — they didn’t impact in any negative way on the litter situation and will most likely contribute to an enhanced environment going forward.

“Ballybane Industrial Estate and Ballybane Village were both litter blackspots  — they have been stubbornly so, for a long number of years.  The Recycle Facility at Ballybane Shopping Centre was very much deserving of the top litter grade.”

Nationally, two-thirds of towns were clean, which was up on 2024. Naas was once again top of the ranking of 40 towns and cities, ahead of Ennis and Killarney. Only four areas were branded littered or seriously littered – the lowest number in five years. Both Dublin and Cork city centres have improved in advance of the peak season for visitors.

“It is encouraging to see that our main city centres – Dublin and Cork – have improved as we welcome summer visitors to our country. Clean streets are imperative, given the challenges facing Ireland as a high-cost destination,” says IBAL’s Conor Horgan

One year on from the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme, plastic bottle and can litter is down 50% on previous levels but was still found in 20% of the 500-plus sites surveyed across the country.

“We hope that the scheme will see the disappearance of this litter, but statistics so far do not bear this out. Cans and plastic bottles are far from a rare sight on our streets and in our hedgerows,” says Conor Horgan.

While the prevalence of coffee cups on streets remains stubbornly high, there was a fall-off in disposable vape litter. The UK and Northern Ireland outlawed disposable vapes earlier this month and a ban here is likely in the coming months.

The survey found the main streets of towns to be generally clean, as were heritage and amenity sites. Residential areas, bus and train stations and recycle facilities were most likely to be littered.

Pictured: Salthill Promenade: ‘Very much deserving of the top litter grade’.