Six towns are to get another chance to bid for Tidy Towns glory after they were left out due to a technical glitch.
The towns are Greystones and Bray in Wicklow, Glenroe and Ballyorgan in Limerick, Ballinamuck in Longford and Mountrath in Laois.
Judges will visit the areas in the coming weeks.
The Department of Community and Rural Affairs says the applications from the towns never reached the department's email servers.
The department is blaming the issue on the sender's email.
It said: "The department acknowledges the huge effort that goes into the Tidy Towns competition each year by local groups and is arranging adjudications to be carried out for the six areas that were able to demonstrate that they had attempted to submit applications before the deadline."
It added that the judges will be "mindful of the fact that their assessments are taking place in October, rather than during the summer months".
