Whatever about being short-taken, Portlaoise councillors certainly feel they are being short changed and given the run-around over their efforts to have the public toilets in Portlaoise reopened.
The lack of a public convenience in the county Town is far from convenient for locals and visitors alike.
The public representatives from the Portlaoise area have had enough and are now demanding some concrete action to what they see as a rather ludicrous situation.
A meeting in County Hall this week where the issue was highlighted once more by Cllr Noel Tuohy, heard that people looking for a loo are now being directed to the county library in Lyster Square.
The library as a loo? ‘Loo-dicrous!
In reply to Cllr Tuohy’s request for an update regarding the provision of public toilets in the Town the response did nothing to appease the councillors.
On the contrary the convoluted reply from Water Services Engineer, Michael O’ Hora, only seemed to vex them.
It read: “Laois county Council is engaging with a specialist company in relation to providing a design and full set of working drawings and for appointment as Project supervisor for Design Process for a new state-of-the-art facility within the footprint for the existing building.
“The Council will then consider its options for completing the construction and for the future maintenance of this new facility in the context of available capital funding.”
This certainly wasn’t the royal flush of a reply that the elected members were expecting.
“If people coming in to the Town can’t even spend a penny, how can we expect them to spend a Euro,” shrugged Cllr Tuohy in dismay at the reply, which he felt was merely kicking the can down the road.
He told of encountering an American family of four one morning down the town at about half nine and had to direct them to the library when they asked where were the public toilets.
“We can do much better surely for a county town of this size talking about attracting tourists. We can do much better than this and we need to get serious about it,” he insisted.
Cllr Pauline Madigan agreed. “We have such a lovely town and a population of over twenty three thousand and there is nowhere for our visitors to go to the loo, that’s ludicrous really.”
“That’s another, live horse and you’ll get grass response,” maintained Cllr John Joe Fennelly, who said that it was embarrassing and an issue for more than just Portlaoise.
“It’s astonishing really that it has taken so long to sort this out as we were assured ages ago that it would be sorted. This was raised the other night at a meeting in Spink. There are people coming in to town, getting the bus in to town and there’s no toilet for them to use, it’s crazy really.”
Cllr Willie Aird said that he was very disappointed with the official response to Cllr Tuohy’s request. “Are we serious about this or what. We’re talking out of the two sides of our mouth. Are the toilets in or out?” Cllr Aird sought a meeting with the responsible Director of Services and the Chief Executive on the matter.
Director of Services, Michael Rainey said he would certainly relay the councillors’ concerns to his colleague Donal Brennan, who had responsibility in this regard.
Cllr Aird wasn’t happy with what he saw as being fobbed off. He reiterated and sought a seconder for his request for a meeting with Donal Brennan and the Chief Executive as well.
“Maybe the Chief Executive will let us know the plan, what they propose. Maybe they will put up signs directing people to the library to use the toilet. Let’s see.”
Cllr Caroline Dwane-Stanley said the councillors had been assured that this would be resolved inside six months but now the saga has dragged on for over two years.
Chairing the meeting Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald said that at present they were left with no option but to direct people looking for a toilet to local businesses or the library, which was not satisfactory. Very often she said families with young children in Lyster Square needed to use a toilet and yet the public toilet remained closed.
She too urged a more urgent response.
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