When illegal dumpers pollute the environment, it's the Irish taxpayer who is left to foot the bill so we rely on our county councils to regulate a large portion of our booming waste industry.

For the last six months we went undercover investigating the ever increasing problem of illegal dumping and how councils regulate and prosecute waste offenders.

As part of the documentary Ireland's Wild Waste, RTÉ Investigates analysed environmental data from the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Housing to determine which councils take waste offences seriously and who is left lagging behind.

By examining rates of inspections, enforcements, prosecutions and staffing levels between 2014 and 2016 we created a ranking of the best (1) and worst (30) councils at managing the waste industry.

We compared how active councils were in these areas to the number of waste permits held in 2016.