Dublin city to get 150 temporary toilets and 134 extra bins this weekend
Revellers in south William street, Dublin. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire
Dublin City Council will provide 150 temporary portaloo toilets and more than 130 bins to accommodate socialising in the city centre.
The local authority was criticised for not providing facilities for the large crowds that gathered in the city centre last weekend.
The chief medical officer (CMO), Dr Tony Holohan, said the scenes in the city centre were like something from before an All-Ireland Final.
Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Hazel Chu, confirmed the news on Twitter saying she just received from the city council's Recovery Task Force manager that "150 portaloo toilets, 54 large eurobins and 80 barrel bins would be added across the city with a specific focus on high footfall areas in the city centre”.
Ms Chu says while there may be concerns about attracting more people to the city, they have to provide facilities for those who are already visiting
"When people are there we need to provide because we need to make sure people can socialise, safely, and we need to provide the facilities for them there as well.
"If there weren't people already coming in I would say well yeah, the argument holds weight but right now there are people coming in.
"We are trying to encourage people to come in to support local business, we want them to come into the city so we must provide facilities for them.
These facilities will be open from 10am to 11pm daily and can be found in the following locations:
- Wolfetone Sq. – additional provision
- Central median on O’Connell Street
- Smithfield – South end
- Royal Canal
- Mountjoy Sq.
- Diamond Park
- Sycamore St
- Temple Bar Square
- Chatham Row Sth
- King Street
- Coppinger Row
- Dame Court
- Dame Lane
- Merrion Square
The decision comes after Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the state needs to provide better facilities for people to socialise outdoors.
Mr Martin said we need to be "creative" in cities and towns and work with councils to redesign streets.
Earlier, Simon Harris said some councils need to “up their game” in preparing for an outdoor summer and providing spaces for people to meet.
The Minister for Further and Higher Education said a number of local authorities have not done a good job ahead of the reopening of society over the next few months.
He made the comments after the Office of Public Works (OPW) closed the Victorian Bandstand in St Stephen’s Green, Dublin.
Fencing was erected around the site on Wednesday.
The OPW said it closed the “vulnerable” historic feature to protect it from vandalism and anti-social behaviour.
“In order to protect the historic bandstand from any further damage, a decision was taken to erect fencing to protect the structure,” the OPW said.
Mr Harris said that as outdoor dining reopens next week, there will be more places for people to meet.
“I think our councils really need to up their game in this regard, and we’ve seen some very good examples,” he said.
“I’ve seen, for example, in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, they seem to have actually done a very good job of preparing, some clearly haven’t.
“I do think we’re going to be at a different situation when the reopening of outdoor dining and outdoor pubs and bars starts from Monday.
“I think what happened last weekend, we had really good weather, we had lots of people who wanted to meet up and see people outdoors, they’ve been told outdoors was safer, and they didn’t have many places to go. That caused congregation.
“So rather than finger wagging, I think we have to look at how do we actually better prepare for that, how do local authorities better prepare, and I do think as we see more places open now, there will be more places for people to meet.”
The Government’s Covid-19 emergency powers have been rolled over until November after a vote in the Dail, by 73 votes to 68.
The legislation permits restrictions on social gatherings, travel and mask-wearing.
The Government’s three parties voted in favour of the extension, but opposition parties criticised the length of it.
The vote came as the boss of the HSE said that there are “brighter days ahead” in reference to the low number of Covid-19 patients in hospital.
On Wednesday night, Paul Reid said: “We’re down to 80 Covid-19 patients in hospital and 34 in ICU. A long way from the dark days of January of over 2,000 in hospital and 200 in ICU.
“We can’t ever go back there. Brighter days ahead. Let’s keep winning hearts and minds and people’s commitment. It’s what works.”
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