€70,000 spent annually on public toilets

IT is costing Ennis Town Council almost €70,000 annually to allow the public to spend a penny, it emerged this week.

Ennis Town Council confirmed it only realised €3,158 in income from operating its two ‘superloos’ located in the Market and Abbey Street car park in 2010.
Councillor Brian Meaney questioned the value for money the council is getting from spending €69,407 on providing two public toilets with only a paltry income return of €3,158.
However, most of Councillor Meaney’s council colleagues argued that the town council is getting relatively good value for money when compared with the cost of paying staff to open and maintain the previous old public toilets, which were often a magnet for anti-social behaviour.
Speaking to The Clare Champion, Councillor Meaney proposed the council should increase the cost of using the toilet from 25c to €1. He noted the figures suggested about 34 people on average use the two toilets on a daily basis.
“25c is an awkward amount to levy. I believe it should be increased to €1. If a private company was operating these toilets, it would make the toilets pay. If the council increased the levy, at least it would dramatically increase income from these toilets,” he said.
Councillor Peter Considine supported the retention of the two superloos despite the significant cost. In his view, it is important that public toilets are available in a county town that can be used by anyone day or night, instead of having a building that could be defiled and used for anti-social behaviour.
Councillor Paul O’Shea said it is important to have accessible public toilets in the town to facilitate tourists during regular festivals, such as the Fleadh Nua and if the town manages to secure the coveted national Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann.
“Can we get better value for money from the existing toilets? What is the situation with similar sized towns in Ireland? Councillor O’Shea asked.
Town manager, Ger Dollard argued the superloos represent good value for money when compared to the cost and the difficulty of trying to maintain the old traditional public toilets, which don’t meet modern hygiene standards.
Mr Dollard said Ennis needs easy access to public toilets and pointed out other towns of a similar size also use these public conveniences. He added the council also got some VAT back on its expenditure on the toilets.