https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2025/05/09/dublin-city-centres-only-public-toilets-to-be-closed/
Reported today that DCC will be closing the only public toilets in the city. Too costly seemingly.
Yet at the same time we can afford to have security minding a statue. Strange priorities imo
There was about 100 users a day at 400k per year.
The article in the OP states that "The council has been spending almost €400,000 a year to operate the toilets"
I'm curious to know that had the article been about DCC spending €400k annually to maintain one set of toilets, how many of those complaining about them closing would have been on here complaining about the waste of public money in keeping them open!
I'm also curious to know which of the people complaining about them closing have actually used them and if not, why not?
Wasnt there some emotive comment about closing laneways in Dublin city centre?
In particular.. Harbour Court.. behind Abbey street.
DCC are finishing the job the British started in 1916.
Certainly a lot of back lanes are in a bad state.
Also any part of town can become a latrine due to the "nighttime economy".
I think thats the point DCC are trying to make, yep.
Should the housing not be paid for out of the social welfare budget? Or some other budget?
Is Dublin city not a public toilet anyway?
This is true.
But if you go back a few decades to a poorer city with a smaller population, less tourists and fewer take away drink/food outlets we had public toilets.
Somehow over the years this essential service has dropped down the priority list until now it's gone altogether.
Reading the article, it is very clear that everyone quoted & involved in the council is saying the budget is nowhere near what is needed.
Almost 70% of the budget is on housing alone.
2.8 billion for housing in Dublin City is a huge figure and does not leave much left for anything else, once salaries are paid.
They are not broke.
Their annual budget this year is €4.2 bn.
https://dublinpeople.com/news/dublin/articles/2024/12/04/dcc-budget-25/
I know they have a lot of calls on that money but public toilets seem to be low on the priority list.
I believe they are essential and they should be able to find a couple of million to provide them.
Does that not say to you that they're broke?
In a way you'd almost admire DCC for their bare faced cheek.
Looking for a tourist tax one week and closing their only public toilet in the city the next.
All the Business rates collected go on City council staffs wages and pensions , there is no money left for toilets or anything else
I was there a few days ago. It's just the most perfect city. Spain has a history of spending truckloads on their ayuntamientos and we never did. Also keep in mind they are a hundred times more civic minded than we are, that culture just doesn't exist in Ireland. We prefer to give old people and job seekers an extra fiver in the budget rather than take care of the public realm. I actually see no hope for Dublin or Ireland when it comes to this kind of stuff. Too short sighted and afraid of big projects. We are just pathetic.
I'm in Cork and I don't think there has been public toilets in the city for quite a while now. It's a joke really. Cork City Council seems to adopt the same approach as Dublin in ensuring anything they do is about how it makes money or covers it's cost. A public toilet should be a mandatory public service.
I'm 15 minutes from City Centre, and the local town down the road from me has a public toilet but Cork City doesn't. It's a joke.
There are public toilets in Cork, admittedly not enough of them. There's one in the Library building on Grand Parade (entrance is from the street not from inside the library). Also one in the English Market during opening hours. And one in Fitzgerald's Park, although that's not very convenient for the city centre.
I was in Bilbao last summer. I'm an early riser so I went strolling around the city around 6.30 a.m.
The amount of lads emptying bins, power washing streets and collecting rubbish was unbelievable.
The place was so clean during the day.
Exactly. I do not understand how the council and local politicians arent brought to task on it.
All Dubliners are asking is that the govt spend the money we as Dubliners pay in tax on our own local Dublin services.
We need a Mayor will power to represent the people of Dublin.
Credit where it's due though. Irish Rail for all their faults have very good facilities in Dublin, in Connolly and Heuston, and any other stations outside Dublin that I've been in recently. The common factor seems to be a visible staff presence.
Noticed this before I went away. The new pavements built from fairview to town in Dublin are absolutely manky already, really disgusting. No one is cleaning them.
DCC can't manage it's remit at the moment and the population has exploded making everything worse. Needs better management and more funding.
The small town I live in in the southeast still has public toilets and they are free to use. Graffiti aside they're in good nick and reasonably clean. I love that it still has public toilets. A huge problem in a big city like Dublin is there are a serious amount of scumbags who misuse the toilets or simply disrespect them.
Understandably having CCTV in toilets is a tricky situation. It might be feasible to have them at the point of entry and exits. If the toilets are mistreated hammer those who abuse it. Indeed make the fookers clean them for a month as punishment. I'm not buying the cost excuse. I think the authorities are too scared to call out the level of anti social behaviour which not just afflict the toilet facilities.
Tourism is a huge part of Ireland's economy. To not have public toilets throughout our capital city, particularly in the centre, is a dereliction of duty. Use any possible tourist tax to maintain the faciltiies problem solved.
We certainly should have more public toilets, but DCC seems to be run on a very tight budget, given the wealth of the country and especially the city.
If the city council isn't getting the funding it needs, there is only so much it can do with those limited funds.
Streets need to cleaned more often, especially when we get long dry periods like we are seeing at the moment and it does not rain for literally weeks.
The pavements get caked in crap, as well as all the litter that builds up.
Give the council the money they need to jet wash streets daily, at least around the city centre.
Dublin residents pay more income tax and PRSI than the rest of the country put together.
The govt should reflect this contribution in its council funding.
Dublin is also the number 1 tourist destination in the country, in terms of visitor numbers; another reason it should be in pristine condition, permanently.
The outdoor toilets in Paris and other French cities are automatically cleaned and dried after use, and are securely locked. The infrastructure is bery expensive but well designed. We have some in Montreal downtown’s touristy areas. I remember being pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness and ubiquity of said toilets in Paris.
Those evening / night pop up toilets have been in Amsterdam, London, Copenhagen & Hamburg amongst many other cities for decades.
In Warsaw, Poland at the moment. They've had a metro here since the mid 1990s. Every one of the metro stations has a free, staffed public toilet.
On top of that city bus and train stations all have brilliant staffed toilets that cost around 1euro to use.
Puts Ireland to Shane as a supposedly much wealthier country.
The junkie riddled toilets in BusAras are a national disgrace. You wouldn't see the like of it in many other countries globally, never mind in the EU. They've been like that past 30 years or so.
Ah here, the headlines above do not describe the situation on the ground nationwide. Shortage of beds and school places is very real.
Nobody agrees the expense on the new hospital is justified, good value or any other metric. They should have ditched the architectural merit for utility value, and built a standard cubic type structure that could still house and deliver world class medical care, and in a much more timely fashion. The hospital expense says a lot about why we are not rich ...
New schools open quite often, especially in the Dublin area.
The most expensive hospital ever built anywhere on planet earth will open in Dublin soon.
Fair point but I ask why so?
To suggest an answer to my own question: Mabye because we are not rich and cannot afford them? Rich countries don't cut back on essential spending on health, education, infrastructure, security, fuure proofing etc.
Add public toilets to this too. It should not even be a question of to do or not to do. They are essential in any city that values it's reputation and status.
Those things are choices for the govt.
They are choosing not to build a new prison or enough new schools, the problem isnt that they cant afford to build, they are choosing not to.
But looking at the bigger picture
Not the trade mark of a rich country in my book
This country is going backwards as not having public toilets , so if you get arrested just say no working toilet to use , what a load of crap and taking the piss. LONG LIVE DIRTY STINKING DUBLIN.
What will tourists think .
