Covid leaves town coveting a loo

There is no public toilet in Mullingar – and due to Covid, most premises are restricting use of facilities to customers only.

As a result, some people have had to improvise, council officials were told at the September meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad.

The subject was raised by Cllr Hazel Smyth, backed by Cllrs Aoife Davitt and Ken Glynn in her call to have temporary public toilets in Mullingar.

Cllr Smyth was disappointed at the council response that there are no plans for temporary public toilets.

“Restaurants and places like that aren’t that keen with Covid-19,” Cllr Smyth said, adding that the council also needed to factor in that there are visitors staycationing locally who need access to facilities.

“I urge to council to reconsider this in light of the Covid-19 restrictions - I find the response quite unsatisfactory,” she stated.

Cllr Aoife Davitt agreed: “It’s a massive issue,” she said going on to state that people are using “specific places” in town when the need arises.

Cllr Glynn described it as an “unforeseen issue” and explained that it was because of issues such as contract tracing that business premises were reluctant to let non-customers use their facilities.

Director of services Martin Murray admitted he had not been aware of the extent of the problem. Mr Murray said there were plans in place for toilets for the fleadh.

However, he continued, providing a temporary toilet was not simple: the rules for a temporary facility are as strict as for permanent one.

He undertook, nonetheless, to prepare costings.