The elected members of Ballina Town Council once again called for a public toilet to be put into the town. Following a request from the members at a previous meeting, town clerk Carmel Murphy had researched the cost of providing such a convenience and had contacted a number of other towns of the same size as Ballina to see what they had done. She told the meeting that of 11 towns she contacted, four had no toilet and some of the other seven had discontinued their use because they were very expensive.
For a top of the range self cleaning toilet she told the members it would cost the Town Council €100,000 to buy and €26,000 per year in maintenance or they could rent the toilet which would cost €35,000 per year including maintenance and they would be tied into a very long lease agreement. She went on to say that for the toilet to pay for itself if it cost 20 cent per usage it would have to be used 175,000 times a year and if the charge was as high as €1 it would still have to be used 35,000 times a year.
All members agreed that Ballina needed a public toilet while they also agreed the cost seemed high.
The council executive agreed to investigate the issue further and report back to the members.
