Superloos not flush with money

THE two Superloos in Ennis town are costing the town council 20 times more than the money they make.

At Monday evening’s annual budget meeting of Ennis Town Council, a number of councillors asked about the logic of spending €80,000 for the two public toilet facilities at Abbey Street and at Market Square, when they only generate up to €4,000 in revenue each year.
Councillor Brian Meaney said it would appear from the figures that the toilet is not being used as much as expected.
“For whatever reason, people aren’t using it. I think it needs to be looked at, going forward, and see whether it’s really necessary,” he commented.
Councillor Mary Howard added this was not the first time the issue of “the loo” had come up at budget meetings.
“It’s hard to say whether it’s needed or not. I don’t think, in general, that people use them unless they really have to. I know that the day we did a bed push in the Ennis area, one of the ladies with us went to use it and the door opened when she was barely in there, so that could certainly be a deterrent to people using it,” she said.
Ennis town manager, Ger Dollard, said it costs 20cent to use the toilet.
“The company who provide the public toilet also maintain the two toilets and the total cost of supply and maintenance is €80,000. The average income is €4,000.
“However, in the past, there used to be blocks of public toilets in most towns and they were impossible to keep and were not something which people used, opting to use toilets in pubs, restaurants and cafés instead. So the issue is that if we don’t continue to provide them, we have to come up with an alternative and I don’t believe there is currently a better one,” he added.
He said he would, however, look at the current package that Ennis Town Council has with the company who provide the toilet to see if there is anything that can be done about the cost.