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The Government has released €4 million in funding to allow local councils to put bins and portable toilets in public areas from this bank holiday weekend.
Minister of State at the Department of Housing Peter Burke said that the funding is being allotted to all 31 local authorities to assist them provide portaloos and bins throughout the country.
The new funding comes on top of a €5 million fund recently announced by Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan to increase the number of bins and facilities in public areas.
Mr Burke said the scheme would be very flexible and would also include other infrastructure such as signage, fencing and maintenance works.
He said the sites involved included open spaces in cities (which have been thronged by large crowds in recent days), greenways, beaches, parks and other public areas.
He said €500,000 was being allotted to Dublin City Council, €200,000 to Cork, €100,000 to Galway, and a minimum of €50,0000 for all local authorities.
“The key message is to abide by public health guidelines,” he said. “Outdoors are much safer than indoors but we need to be responsible. Ninety percent of people 90 percent of the time have been responsible,” he said.
The Fine Gael TD for Longford-Westmeath said the measures would be needed throughout the summer and into the autumn but he said the easing of restrictions for outdoor dining and, later, for indoor dining and drinking, would ease the pressure in relation to this phenomenon.
He denied there was any conflict between central Government and local authorities, some of whom have closed off areas.
He said that he had spoken to the chief executives of local authorities and all were supportive of the scheme.
“I don’t think there are mixed messages,” he said. “The very clear premise is that outdoors is safer than indoors. If we all try to do what we are doing in terms of keeping up our responsibilities, I think we can do that safely. That gives us the best chance of having the best possible summer.”
Asked if the money was available immediately, Mr Burke said it was, and the message to councils from him was that their cash flows were now good. He said local authorities had already delivered hundreds of extra bins and portaloos which would be in place tonight, including in Dublin.
Fianna Fáil Senator Malcolm Byrne, meanwhile, has advocated the use of outdoor urinals, as used in continental countries. “I’m very much in favour of local authorities using pissoirs (commonly used in France and the Benelux countries). They can be portable and can stop a lot of the problems of public urination. They make sense for urban areas / beaches - wherever there are crowds,” he said.