Galway City and County Councils are to get a helping hand in cleaning up litter black spots and tackling graffiti in key tourist areas during the summer months with more than €100,000 in Government funding being allocated.
The Minister for the Environment, Heritage, and Local Government, John Gormley TD, launched the anti-litter support grant scheme and the anti-litter and anti-graffiti awareness scheme earlier this week just as a litter survey by the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL ) found that key tourist routes in Ireland, including airports and seaports, are “blighted with large amounts of litter”.
To help tackle the scourge of litter and graffiti Galway City Council is to receive a total of €58,000 under both schemes while the county council is to receive a total of €50,000. Nationally the anti-litter support grant scheme will provide €1.5 million over the next three years to support cleaning of key scenic, rural, and visitor areas during the peak tourist season from May to September. Local authorities across the country will also receive a further €1 million as part of the anti-litter and anti-graffiti awareness scheme.
Speaking at the launch Minister Gormley said: “Unfortunately, some people continue to behave irresponsibly in discarding litter, leaving local authorities to clean up after them.
“It is vital that, as we move towards economic recovery, everyone plays their part in presenting Ireland in the best possible light to tourists and potential investors,” he said.
Minister Gormley stressed that these schemes were just the start of a campaign by his department to engage with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA ), local authorities, the National Roads Authority (NRA ), and the public to tackle the menace of litter in Ireland.
The funding will be a welcome aid for Galway’s local authorities in their battle with litter. The final results of the IBAL Anti Litter League surveys over the past three years suggests that Galway city has been edging further into the rubbish heap. In the final results of 2007, Galway city proudly managed to secure eighth place and was dubbed “litter free”. It remained at eighth place and was “clean to European norms” the following year, however, the final results of the 2009 survey showed that Galway city had dropped to 45th place and was deemed to be “moderately littered”. Other areas of Galway did not do much better with “moderately littered” Tuam at 47th place, and Ballinasloe, which was placed 54th, described as “seriously littered”.
