Fingal Council to introduce free sanitary products to public buildings

The Fingal Women’s Caucus has welcomed the work being done by Fingal County Council to introduce free sanitary products into Council buildings, including libraries and community centres.

It follows the passing of a motion from councillor Pamela Conroy at last April’s Council meeting which read: “That this Council recognises the existence of period poverty and provides free period products in Council buildings, including libraries, in line with Dublin City Council, Wexford County Council and Wicklow County Council.”

The council has now commenced the procurement of sanitary products, following a successful pilot project.

It plans to initially install sanitary product units in County Hall, Swords and the Civic Offices in Blanchardstown before expanding the service to include other public buildings such as community centres and libraries.

Councillor Conroy said: “I am delighted to see that the council has reacted positively to my motion and are planning to make sanitary products available, free of charge, to the public in all our public buildings including community centres and libraries.

“The availability of sanitary products is recognised as a necessity for women and there is evidence that period poverty, which is the struggle to pay for basic sanitary products on a monthly basis, has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Making sanitary products available in public buildings will make a big difference to the lives of women and girls across Fingal.”

The Chairperson of the Women’s Caucus, councillor Karen Power, said: “Councillor Conroy’s motion, which I seconded, was passed unanimously by the council in April and it was refreshing to see such widespread support for an initiative that is extremely important to women, who make up half the population of Fingal.

“The caucus plans to focus on identifying issues that affect women in Fingal and looking at how best it can assist in resolving them.”