Galway Bay fm newsroom - Galway's city and county councils have received 'excellent' ratings from the Environmental Protection Agency under its 2016 performance assessment scheme.
The overall ratings represent a vast improvement on previous years, when both local authorities received very poor results with regard to air quality.
The EPA has been monitoring local authorities' environmental performance in recent years in a bid to improve areas such as air quality, enforcement, water, waste and food waste.
The City and County Council's overall ratings have improved from just achieving target level in 2015, to excellent for 2016.
In the county, the local authority has been rated 'outstanding' in terms of enforcement systems and water.
Waste and food waste are at target, while the air quality rating is excellent.
In the city, waste management has received an 'outstanding' rating, air and food waste are at target and enforcement systems have been deemed above target.
Nationally, 23 out of 31 local authorities have seen an improvement in their environmental performance over the past three years.
The EPA says local authorities in general need to target inspection to control the burning of solid fuels and improve management of specific waste items such as tyres and food.
