Anger over closure of toilets at Mayo beach

Achill councillor Paul McNamara has pledged to allocate some of his own General Municipal Allocation (GMA) to keep the public toilets in Keel open over the festive period.

Cllr McNamara told last week's meeting of Westport-Belmullet Municipal District that there was "no public toilet open at all within the Achill area until you get to Achill Sound". 

"The toilets are closed at Keel and Keem and the mobile toilets are removed off our Blue Flag beaches when the summer season is over. 

"I raise this matter time and time again. The facilities are there. The public toilets are right on the campsite there in Keel and it is my belief they should be open full-time. I have had numerous calls, particularly in November with the good spell of weather, there were days of 16 and 17 degrees and a lot of day-trippers came into the village.

“But people could not find any place to go to the toilet. We do so much promoting the Wild Atlantic Way yet at a destination like this the toilets are not open."

Cllr McNamara said the beach at Keel is "open 365 days a year" and always has people walking on it. 

Head of the district Seamus O’Mongáin claimed the council could not open the public toilets in Keel on a full-time basis as it “would be setting precedents across the county” and the resources were not there. However, Cllr McNamara said he could not accept it was a resource issue. 

"We are promoting Keem Bay, our walking areas, our Blue Flag beaches on a constant basis and there is something wrong if we can’t provide a facility of a toilet in an area like this.

“We also have planning permission for a major project through Fáilte Ireland to build changing rooms and toilets at Keel. If we cannot open the ones that are there now, how will we manage this? Surely we are not going to build a white elephant. Have we not a plan in place to open that new project 24/7?" 

Director of Services Joanne Grehan said it would be difficult to commit to opening the toilets over the Christmas period due to the pressure it would put on staff rostering. She said the new toilets and changing rooms would be open all year round. 

Unhappy with the lack of support for his proposal, Cllr McNamara then declared: “Right, I will provide some of my GMA money to help solve the problem until the new structure is built, so that they are open from December 1.” 

The Director of Services said she would work further with the Achill councillor in the days ahead.