Online petition calling for more public toilets garners nearly 1,300 signatures

An online petition urging Dublin City Council to install more public toilets around the city has garnered nearly 1,300 signatures at the time of writing.

Set up by Orlaith Delargy, the petition is calling on DCC and the Office of Public Works (OPW) to introduce more public toilets in the “city centre and parks.”

“As the weather gets warmer, we’re all starting to think about how we can safely enjoy ourselves this summer in Dublin,” says the petition.

“But to enjoy the outdoors for more than an hour or two, we need public toilets in Dublin’s city centre and parks.

“Public toilets bring multiple benefits, including improved accessibility for families, people with disabilities and those with medical conditions.”

The local authority has installed temporary public toilets at St Stephen’s Green and Wolfe Tone Square but with people socialising outdoors due to the pandemic, more facilities are being called for.

“Last summer, thousands of people met up for walks and talks in Dublin’s parks and found themselves at a loss when nature called,” the petition says.

“This can lead to unsightly and damaging public urination.

“And yet, Dublin City Council’s Parks Department said last summer that they had “no plans” to provide additional public toilets. Neither did the OPW for the Phoenix Park.”

Artane-Whitehall councillor Patricia Roe, who has been campaigning for more public toilets to be installed, says that although the petition “will not change the view of council officials per se, anything that raises the public awareness of an issue helps.

“What we need to do is get a public conversation going on about this,” she says.

“Then you force them to come out from behind bland answers such as the one that I received and have discussions about what the alternatives are and how it is done it other countries, also how maybe it can be done for less?”

At last month’s North Central Area Committee meeting, Roe tabled a question asking the council to install more toilets at public parks and spaces.

In response, the council said that “unless such public toilets are suitably located and adequately serviced, they can quite quickly become havens for anti-social behaviour and vandalism.

“The Parks Service has experience of such toilets in the past that were unavailable to the public more often than not due to vandalism and damage.

“Portaloos would not be considered as an appropriate interim solution within a public park as their light-weight plastic construction makes them vulnerable to being tipped over or otherwise damaged and to firesetting.

“Such temporary toilets are only really suitable at events or at works sites where they are located behind locked gates.”

Roe says that innovative public toilet facilities have been introduced in many European countries, that are cost effective and prevent anti-social behaviour.

“If we can get a debate going then we can pitch ideas – so converting a small empty retail unit on a busy city centre street, access only by card – could be in conjunction with a DCC service – or not.

“Compostable loos – save thousands on plumbing – a member of the public tells me they have a compostable public loo on Table Mountain,” she says.

“I saw where a local council, in Germany I think, gave businesses a partial rebate on rates when they made their loos available to the public by putting a sign in their window to this effect.

“Could something like that work here?  Make a change from the “toilets for customers use only” signs that we usually see.

“When DCC build a facility, they do so to a very high spec, and so the provision of any public toilets is a very expensive exercise.

“That is one of the reasons why they are so reluctant to move on this.

“I’ve heard that are thinking about linking the provision of a public loo with a licence to operate a coffee truck/outlet but that’s not really addressing the issue, in my opinion.”