Limerick joins Dublin in adding toilets and extra bins to cater for bank holiday crowds

There will also be an enhanced cleansing schedule in place for the Bank Holiday Weekend to tackle an expected increase on footfall.

Limerick City Council is providing public toilets in three key areas as part of their measures to cater for an outdoor summer.

The toilets at Merchant’s Quay, Arthur’s Quay Park and Robert Byrne Park on Clancy Strand will operate on a 24 hour basis daily over the weekend and will be monitored regularly.

There will also be 15 additional large volume bins at locations where current bins have been filling as people congregate in those areas.

The Council is encouraging people to use the larger bins provided after t noted how people we not using the larger dumpster size bins when the traditional grey bins were full.

The extra bins are being provided in Arthur’s Quay Park, George’s Quay, Merchant’s Quay, Treaty Stone, Curragower Park, St Michael’s Rowing Club, Shannon Bridge on river walkway, Honan’s Quay and St Mary’s Cathedral.

“Again we’d like to remind people of personal responsibility when it comes to litter. They must use a bin or if a bin is full to take it to another one nearby or bring it home,” the council said. “We all have to do our bit to help the environment and let’s leave no trace.

While there are no plans to close off areas where large crowds gather the council monitoring the situation alongside the gardai.

The move follows that taken in Dublin where a number of temporary toilets and bins have been installed across the city ahead of the Bank Holiday weekend.

Dublin City Council promised to install a further 150 portaloo toilets, 54 large eurobins, and 80 barrel bins in a number of locations in the capital, with specific focus on areas with high footfall.

This is in addition to the existing 3,310 bins and 28 public toilet locations across the city.

On the north side of the city, the toilets will be located on Wolfetone Square, O’Connell Street, Smithfield, the Royal Canal, Mountjoy Square, and Diamond Park.

South of the river, they will be on Sycamore Street, Temple Bar Square, Chatham Row, South King Street, Coppinger Row, Dame Court, Dame Lane, and Merrion Square.

In a statement the Council said: “We will also be putting additional direct labour human resources in place to service the additional waste collection and contracted services for toilet management, including cleaning and queue management.”

The additional toilets will be open from 10am to 11pm daily.

The new public toilets and bins come after scenes of large crowds gathering around South William Street and South Great George’s Street last weekend were described by Tony Holohan as a “major open air party.”