A Dublin City Councillor has said she is “extremely frustrated” that four new toilets costing €1.5 million each are still at the ‘concept stage’, months after their approval. 

Two toilets are due to be installed on Dame Street, while another two will be located just off O’Connell Street. 

However, although the council approved the installation of the toilets in June last year, it now seems unlikely they will be ready for the summer. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, Green Party Councillor for Clontarf Donna Cooney said she was unhappy with the project’s slow progress. 

“We've been having the same discussions in Dublin City Council since I was elected in 2019,” she said. 

“And we're yet to actually see the reality of these toilets appear on the street. 

“I suppose all councillors welcomed this announcement because we were told the toilets were going to be closed down on Stephens Green - and we just didn't accept that.

“All of us are looking for toilets in our areas; it's something that actually you'll find across the full council, that there's never any opposition to toilets. We're always looking for toilets.” 

Public toilets in Dublin. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.

Cllr Cooney added that building new public toilets in Dublin is not a simple process, noting that the council has “gone through all the different iterations of toilets”. 

“Even though we thought this was extremely expensive, almost €6 million to provide these four toilets, since it was the only option on the table, we went with it,” she said. 

“Because we just cannot be a local authority with the size of Dublin City and not have a provision of public toilets.” 

Cost of public toilets

When questioned about the €6 million price tag, Cllr Cooney admitted that €1.5 million per toilet is “crazy”. 

However, she said the toilets may need to be staffed. 

“This is because they believe that for security reasons, they need to be staffed,” she explained. 

“I sometimes think these costs are put in because they thought, ‘Well, that would be prohibitive, the council don't go with that because we're putting in something that's quite ludicrous in terms of the cost’,” she suggested. 

“But we weren't given any other option and yet they're now just at a concept stage - it is ridiculous.”

Main image: Toilets in Dublin. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie