Focus on disabled toilet facilities across County Cavan

Community centres across the county could be used to provide wheelchair accessible toilet facilities in future if a discussion on the matter at the January meeting of Cavan County Council has the desired impact.

The matter emerged on foot of a notice of motion during proceedings by Fianna Fáil’s Cllr Philip Brady who called on Cavan County Council to source buildings within the county’s towns and villages for the provision of wheelchair accessible toilets. He said the county prided itself on being one of the most “welcoming” in Ireland but the lack of wheelchair accessible toilets in “many places” was a cause for concern.

“Not all our towns but certainly there are some and I feel that we should have a facility like this in every town,” he continued before adding that the local authority and business could work together to ensure the initiative gets off the ground.

“Once we have it done, a list can be created of the locations of those facilities in the county and put up on the website so that people can access the information for themselves.”

Cllr Patricia Walsh (FF) seconded the motion before adding: “There are a lot of businesses that don’t allow people to use their toilets unless they are a customer. Facilities, like those proposed, are very much needed.”

It was Cllr Winston Bennett (FG) who then proposed that community centres should be used. “A lot of money has been given to community centres and maybe this is where wheelchair accessible toilets should be,” he remarked. “This is definitely an option that should be looked at.”

Meanwhile, Director of Services, Brendan Jennings told the meeting that Cllr Brady’s motion was very worthwhile and the matter was one “worth discussing”.

“There are quite a lot of disabled facilities across our county and new regulations came into force in 2024 that places an onus on new builds to provide disabled facilities,” he said.

“We are now obligated under law to provide them; we have facilities at the Percy French Hotel in Ballyjamesduff, the Shannon Pot and at the Library in Kingscourt, for example, and all of these are open to the public to use. You are all going to see significant changes in our county in relation to all of this and it’s coming at a time when we are putting huge investment into our public infrastructure.”