Donegal Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

At last Public Toilets for Buncrana.

Published: 20 February, 2010

At last Public Toilets for Buncrana.

The lack of public toilets has been an issue in Buncrana for many years now like previous councillors before me I have raised the issue of providing public toilets on or near the main street.

So in co-operation we Supervalu supermarket I am pleased we have finally found an interim measure. For sponsorship of the roundabout Supervalu now provide public toilets facilities, these facilities I believe although in a small way will enhance our tourist potential. We now have a facility where tourist coaches will be able to park up and this has the potential to benefit the entire town.

Providing and maintaining public toilets is challenging for many towns across Ireland, there is the initial cost of construction and maintenance and unfortunately there is the cost factor of vandalism to consider. So with the present economic climate, I believe Buncrana Town Council has achieved value for money.

Some traders within the town have expressed a desire to see the construction of public toilets in the old fire station Cockhill Road.
While I personally have no objection to this proposal the reality at present makes this proposal unrealistic on a number of fronts.

It is presently used to occupy town council employees and serves a number of valuable functions, so finding alternative premises will naturally come at a cost. We also have a Government recruitment freeze at present so either employing or increasing the workload of an employee will be challenged.

At budget time while keeping the lowest commercial rates in the state the elected reps decided to ring fence an extra 20,000 Euro to be used for promotion of our town. Having had discussions with the Town Council Engineer the above figure unfortunatly would fall well short in delivering and maintaining state of the art public toilets on this site, not to mention the pressure it would place on having too increase commercial rates to subsidise it.

So, while I understand some trader's concerns, I believe we should use the allocated 20,000 Euro to encourage coach tourists to stay in our beautiful town.