Neill O’Neill

ACHILL County Councillor Paul McNamara has hit out over the lack of facilities and the opening hours of toilets at the county’s Blue Flag beaches, saying he fears for their status going forward.

His comments at a West Mayo Municipal District meeting, made on Clare Island where one of Mayo’s eleven Blue Flag beaches is located, were coming off the back of a plethora of complaints he has had from locals in Achill, over the fact that the toilets at Keel Beach were locked up all weekend.

“We have had unbelievable weather and there are thousands of people using our beaches and while the toilets were finally opened in the last week, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing that they were locked again at 4.30pm on Friday evening, locked all weekend when the beaches were packed, and opened again this morning” (Monday), he said.

“I went down to Purteen Harbour yesterday (Sunday) so many were the calls I was getting and there was 12 cars unloading boats into the water with three or four people in each, but there is no toilets for them to use. The tourist season is short and it will get shorter if we do not start providing services and making the ones we do have accessible when they are needed. People coming on coaches to anywhere, the first thing they look for when they get off is a toilet. We can’t be expecting them to go behind a hedge when nature calls. We have been advertising and working on promoting the Wild Atlantic Way, but we need to improve on this, we need basic facilities.”

Cllr McNamara went on to explain that there are 60 permanent mobile homes on a campsite beside Masterson’s Bar and Restaurant in Dugort, but a survey was undertaken and found that there was no need for a lifeguard on the adjacent Golden Strand, as there are not enough swimmers there.

“I don’t accept that, for the busy periods that beach has to have a lifeguard and we knew that the weather was going to be good so why couldn’t we have opened the toilets at the beaches. If we lose a Blue Flag over a simple service not being provided, it will be too late to do anything about it. Let’s be one step ahead next year and get the toilets opened seven days a week earlier in the season.”

He was supported in his call by Cllr Michael Holmes, who said that the toilets opening hours, as explained, made ‘no sense’.