Local election candidate calls on Cork City Council to make more public toilets available

A LOCAL election candidate has called on Cork City Council to provide more public toilets, particularly in areas with high footfall — including the Lough, the Lee Fields, and the city centre.

Social Democrats candidate Pádraig Rice, who is seeking election in the South Central ward, said he believes the council is providing an inadequate number of public toilets across the city.

“Public toilets are an important public service that the city council has completely neglected,” Mr Rice said.

“Places like the Lough badly need a public toilet. Parents bring their children to the playground, but there are no toilets. It makes no sense.

"More public toilets would really benefit not just parents and children but also many older people and people with disabilities.”

Mr Rice said previously far more public toilets were available across the city and claimed the existing ones are not widely known about.

“The public toilets that do exist, like the one on Grand Parade, are poorly advertised. Many locals don’t know they are there — what hope does someone visiting the city have? They need to put up better signs.

“I think the council needs to start getting the basics right and start focusing on providing better public services for the people of Cork,” he said.

A spokesperson for the city council said the local authority provides public toilets in the North Main Street Shopping Plaza, on Grand Parade next door to the City Library and at some “large public amenities areas including Ballincollig Regional Park, Tramore Valley Park, Fitzgerald’s Park, and Marina Park”.

They acknowledged that, in the past the council “had a lot more public toilets” but due to being “targeted for antisocial behaviour, vandalism, including graffiti, deliberate destruction of facilities, and tampering with plumbing fixtures thus creating safety concerns for users” some facilities have been closed.