Dublin needs to “get its act together” and provide the public with a proper network of public toilets, a local restaurant owner has said. 

The City Council lists only 28 public toilets on its website and some local businesses are unhappy people are coming off the street to use their facilities.

Speaking to The Hard Shoulder, restaurant owner Gina Murphy said she is happy to help if “somebody really needs to use the loo” but feels the council needs to do more.

“It shouldn’t fall on private businesses to provide public services,” she said.

“You go to Paris and they have over 400 standalone public toilets that are all spotless and they’re just little cubicles on street corners that you go into…. Belfast has them, London has them.

“Everywhere has them, why can’t Dublin get its act together and put in proper public toilets?”

Rural Ireland

Anthony Eala, who owns a number of restaurants in County Sligo, said things are different down the country.

“The majority of people that come into my premises, they’ll buy a coke, they’ll buy a mineral and they’ll use the facility,” he said.

“Some of them don’t and I let them in but it’s under my owner’s discretion.

“Obviously, if someone comes in and they’re out of it, I’m not going to let them in and use the toilet.”

A public toilet. Picture by: Daniel Karmann/DPA/PA Images

Like in Dublin, public toilets in Sligo are few and far between - but Mr Eala has been working with the County Council to publicise businesses that will allow people to use their facilities.

“We’re going to have 11 different places where you can use the toilet in Sligo and they’ll be publicised on social media and it’ll give the public an opportunity to do that,” he said.

“Would it work in a bigger town like Dublin? I don’t know.”

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Main image: Public toilets. Picture by: Peter Langer/Design Pics via ZUMA Wire.