Concerns have been raised about the safety and privacy of schoolchildren, after a TD claimed that mixed-sex toilet facilities are “now the default design standard for every new school” built in Ireland.
Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín said he acquired the information via a response to a Parliamentary Question.
The issue of mixed-sex toilets in Irish schools first featured in the media in April 2023, when parents at a Co Kerry Educate Together school refuted claims that students were consulted about mixed-sex toilets at the school.
It emerged that parents were not asked or told about new toilets at the €16 million new school being gender neutral, which sparked parental backlash and saw the school reverse the proposed plan to have three floors of gender neutral toilets.
Aontú said on Wednesday that parliamentary questions have confirmed that the policy never went away, and said “only the public discussion around it did.”
It comes after author and journalist Estelle Birdy claimed in a viral post on X that Harold’s Cross Educate Together Secondary School in Dublin had no separate facilities for males and females, and that there had been backlash over gender neutral toilets at the school – with the post trending on X.
“These are some of the toilets in the new Harold’s Cross Educate Together Secondary School. Every single toilet block is mixed sex. Every single cubicle had both male and female signs on the door. You’ll see that the school has printed off and laminated a couple of pieces of paper with arrows and the words ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ on them and stuck to them, in a makeshift fashion, on the shared sink bank,” said Birdy.
“Presumably, this is the school’s effort to appease the very large cohort of students who were incensed a couple of months ago when they found out that the school had decided to make all the toilets mixed sex,” she added.
The journalist said that “only people who are completely oblivious to the needs and desires of teenage girls especially, for privacy and dignity, would make teenage girls share toilet facilities with teenage boys like this.”
“Why have exclusionary toilet facilities been adopted in this publicly funded school?” she asked.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Education and Youth told Gript:
“Under the provisions of the Education Act, 1998 the board of management is the body charged with the direct governance of a school on behalf of the patron and the principal is responsible for the day-to-day management of the school including implementing school policies. In this context, the operation of sanitary facilities is a matter for each school authority.”
Aontú has said that gender-neutral toilets are standard for new Educate Together schools, adding today that it is now asking whether the State Claims Agency was consulted before this design standard was adopted.
“Schools building to this specification and operating mixed-sex facilities may be exposed to significant legal liability if a child is assaulted. Was any legal risk assessment carried out? If a claim is taken against a school arising from an incident in mixed-sex toilet facilities, who bears responsibility — the school that was handed this design, or the Department that mandated it?” the party said in a statement.
Aontú said it is calling on the Minister for Education to clarify whether any public consultation was carried out before the design standard was adopted, whether any safety or impact assessment was ever undertaken, and what specific measures have been put in place to protect the privacy and dignity of all students — “and in particular the physical safety of girls. These are decisions made centrally. They require central accountability.”
In a statement, the party said on Wednesday:
“The Rape Crisis Network Ireland asked the Department of Education to collect data on sexual bullying in schools as far back as 2013. That request was ignored. The Department has never collected data on where or how often sexual assaults occur in schools. It has nonetheless proceeded to design every new school in the country with mixed-sex toilet facilities — without consultation, without a safety impact assessment, and without any data to justify the decision.
“The safety implications are not theoretical. Cases of serious sexual assault have been reported in mixed-sex school toilet facilities in the UK, in schools where no prior safety or impact assessment had been carried out. Evidence from the UK further shows that girls are avoiding mixed-sex school toilets entirely — refusing to drink during the school day and neglecting sanitary care — due to embarrassment and fear.
“The new Irish design standard removes urinals entirely and replaces traditional single-sex facilities with cubicles opening onto shared washbasin areas. Genuine single-sex provision — where girls and boys have a fully private space including washbasins — is no longer physically possible in any new Irish school. Whether facilities are labelled male, female or mixed is left to individual school authorities. With sustained pressure from NGOs and lobby groups, the direction in which that choice will be nudged is not difficult to predict.”
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION RESPONSE
In response to a parliamentary question, Minister for Education, Hildegard Naughton told the TD:
“The School Design Guide document SDG 02-06 Sanitary Facilities published by my Department’s Planning & Building Unit provides guidance on the provision of sanitary facilities in all new primary and post-primary schools. It includes the following provisions:
“All sanitary facilities are to be designed with the physical and emotional safety of pupils in mind, to promote inclusivity and in order to remove the risk of bullying in the school environment. Toilets, corridors, cloakrooms, locker areas, changing rooms and showers may be the location of verbal, psychological and physical bullying. The behaviour of pupils in those areas requires careful monitoring through passive supervision.
“The location, design and layout of sanitary facilities must balance the requirement for passive supervision of sanitary facilities from circulation spaces with the dignity and privacy requirements of each user. Well-designed and well-managed sanitary facilities create cleaner, healthier spaces and are capable of being used, cleaned and maintained in a way that ensures safety and dignity of pupils and staff,” she added.
The statement said that the operation of sanitary facilities is a matter for each school authority.
“As such, early discussion in the design process between the Design Team and the School Authority in relation to the arrangement and layout of sanitary facilities is required’.
The decision in relation to the identification, allocation, wayfinding or signage of the toilet facilities in every school is based on detailed conversations between the school authority and the design team at the earliest stage, and in compliance with the recommendations of SDG-02-06 as well as the requirements of the Building Regulations.
“The decisions relating to the identification of sanitary facilities will be based on the ethos and values of each individual school, agreed between design teams and the school authority at the outset of the design process. In every case, all options relating to the identification of sanitary facilities, gender specific or not, remain open to each school authority as is specified in legislation,” the Minister added.
“As such, SDG-02-06 satisfies entirely the requirements of all applicable legislative requirements in relation to the prevention of discrimination in our schools and does so through a spirit of partnership with each school authority.
“In addition, Universal Accessible Toilets are provided in schools in accordance with Part M of the Building Regulations and these are individual toilets designed to be self-contained units and therefore can be used by wheelchair users of all genders.”
The response further detailed: “The guidance for post-primary schools includes suggested room layouts for toilet facilities with the wash hand basins located in an area, directly off and open to the circulation space facilitating better supervision. All cubicle spaces containing WCs are designed as self-contained spaces with robust full-height separating walls and access doors.
“Student sanitary facilities in post-primary schools should be arranged in small blocks, not in a large central block. Small blocks increase the opportunity for passive supervision, discourage anti-social behaviour, reduce disruption caused by cleaning and maintenance, and cut down curriculum time lost through pupils visiting sanitary facilities during lessons.”
A number of elected councillors have waded into the debate around school toilets, including Independent Ireland’s Linda de Courcy.
“We shouldn’t have to spell out the ridiculously obvious reasons girls need access to safe and single sex toilet facilities,” said the councillor.
“A colleague & I stood at Navan Hospital after gender neutral toilets opened there. We conducted a survey over 3 or 4 hrs & asked visitors & staff alike if they agreed with them or not. 98% said they did not,” Cllr Emer Tóibín said:
Meanwhile, Sandra Adams of the advocacy group, The Countess, said that she had asked the Department of Education, under Freedom of Information, for evidence of risk or impact assessments carried out related to mixed-sex toilets in secondary schools.
“95 documents were released. Not one showed evidence of assessing the impact on girls and boys,” claimed Adams.