A multi-million euro initiative aimed at cleaning up Dublin city centre has been unveiled.
Businesses based in the capital have established a new partnership to launch supplementary environmental services, such as daily power-hosing of streets, chewing gum and graffiti removal, street landscaping and more frequent litter collections.
The Dublin City Centre Business Improvement District (BID), the organisation which will run the additional services, said its aim is to make the city a more attractive place for tourists to visit and people to do business in.
It said it plans to invest €15 million over the next five years to make the capital "cleaner, greener and safer".
Almost €1million will be spent annually in the provision of additional cleaning services over and above those provided by Dublin City Council. In addition, the initiative include a 1-hour clean-up guarantee, whereby a so-called rapid reaction force will be employed to instantly clean-up rubbish on the capital's streets.
Similar schemes run in parts of north America and have been credited with significant improvements to areas such as Times Square in New York.
"The downtown areas of big cities like Washington and Philadelphia, which had become seedy no-go areas, have all been rejuvenated through BID schemes. They have had a dramatic impact in terms of sanitation, crime and trading and as a result people have flocked back to the city centres," said Richard Guiney, CEO of Dublin City Centre BID.
"Obviously we're coming from a lower base so our impact won't be as dramatic but if we can emulate some of the activities that have happened in the US then we can make a big impact on the vibrancy on Dublin city centre.
Recent legislation allowed for the establishment of the initiative. The measure allows for the sourcing of extra money from local traders who will then benefit from improvements to the local area.
According to Mr Guiney around 1/20th of the sum firms pay as part of their rates can be used as a contribution to the initiative and companies can get a tax-write off on the cost.
"It's not a huge amount of money for individual firms but taken together it is a significant sum that can be used to clean up the streets."
The BID said it has already introduced full-time 'Street Ambassadors' to the city to monitor cleanliness, identify improvements that can be made, identify security issues and assist the general public to create a more welcoming environment for the city centre.
Each of the 115 individual streets in the BID area, which runs from Parnell St to St Stephen's Green and from South Great Georges St to Talbot St, will be monitored at least twice a day by the Ambassadors.
