A litter lottery with a prize of a bicycle or CD player to encourage children to keep their town clean is one of the keys to the success of Kenmare, Co Kerry, as the tidiest town in Ireland.
A litter-free environment is the aim of the Kenmare Tidy Towns Committee and its members work tirelessly to maintain it. In fact, Ms Anne Browne, its chairperson, sometimes stops her car up to 10 times a day to pick up litter.
The vigilance of Ms Browne and the community has paid off not only by winning the national prize in the Tidy Towns Competition. She recalled taking visitors around the town recently and being delighted when she did not see one piece of litter.
But, she stressed, it didn't just happen. "We all keep an eye on different areas," she said.
Encouraging children to become aware of the litter problem has been an important aspect of their policy and resulted in the novel scheme.
"A driving force behind the committee is Father Michael Murphy, the parish priest. He visits the four schools in the area and asks children to pick up a piece of litter. For each piece of litter they get a ticket which goes into a draw and at the end of the year there is a prize of a bicycle or a CD player," Ms Browne explained.
The scheme created great awareness among children about litter and keeping their town tidy, she said.
As the members of the Kenmare committee went to collect the award from the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, broadcaster John Bowman, presiding at the ceremony, pointed out that Father Murphy won it for Sneem some years ago and now had won it for Kenmare. He added: "So people are wondering where the bishop's going to send you next."
Afterwards, Father Murphy said there was great community spirit and he considered the biggest thing that had won it for Kenmare was litter control, not just during the judging but the whole year round, even on Christmas Day.
It was the first time Kenmare had won but it was the second time for Co Kerry as Sneem won it in 1987 when Father Murphy was there. He was delighted with the win.
"It was a great community effort and there'll be a great community celebration tonight," Father Murphy said.
The celebrations had already started at Dublin Castle and the announcement of the winners is always a surprise. Secrecy is maintained right up to the moment the envelope is opened to the extent that during a rehearsal yesterday morning speakers read out every winner as that well-known Irish town - Ballykissangel.