{"id":922590,"date":"2026-07-26T07:17:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T12:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/26\/call-for-no-wait-card-for-people-needing-urgent-access-to-toilets-for-health-reasons\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T07:17:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T12:17:49","slug":"call-for-no-wait-card-for-people-needing-urgent-access-to-toilets-for-health-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/26\/call-for-no-wait-card-for-people-needing-urgent-access-to-toilets-for-health-reasons\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for ‘no wait card’ for people needing urgent access to toilets for health reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

New Bill<\/span><\/p>\n

The Labour Party introduced its Equal Status (Access to Toilet Facilities) Bill 2025 to the D\u00e1il today. <\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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THE D\u00c1IL HEARD a call for the introduction of a statutory \u201cno wait card\u201d for people with chronic and invisible illnesses who are in urgent need of toilet facilities.<\/p>\n

The Labour Party introduced its\u00a0Equal Status (Access to Toilet Facilities) Bill 2025 to the D\u00e1il today. The Bill would place the cards on a statutory footing, ensuring retail shops and businesses with staff toilets would make them available to cardholders.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo wait cards\u201d already exist, and are issued by organisations such as Crohn\u2019s & Colitis Ireland and Spinal Injuries Ireland, but there is no legal entitlement for businesses to provide access to its bathrooms.<\/p>\n

Labour described the card as a \u201ccritical support for many people with medical conditions\u201d, including IBS, which affects around 40,000 people in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of the Bill\u2019s introduction, Labour TD Mark Wall said it offers a \u201ccompassionate and practical solution\u201d and added that he hoped the government will work with Labour to bring about the change.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some people with a medical condition, they simply cannot wait until they get home to use a toilet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntroducing this Bill is an important step to raise awareness for people with chronic health conditions, and to make sure that public spaces are inclusive and responsive to the needs of everyone who uses them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke, who was taking questions in the D\u00e1il today, said his party colleague Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill \u201cis very much supportive\u201d of the initiative.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Burke said he hopes the government can work with Labour on the Bill.<\/p>\n

Do you think the cards should be put on a statutory footing?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Camellia Buresh
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Bill The Labour Party introduced its Equal Status (Access to Toilet Facilities) Bill 2025 to the D\u00e1il today. THE D\u00c1IL HEARD a call for the introduction of a statutory \u201cno wait card\u201d for people with chronic and invisible illnesses who are in urgent need of toilet facilities. The Labour Party introduced its\u00a0Equal Status (Access<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":922591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91629,287],"tags":[5199,6149],"class_list":["post-922590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-card","category-people","tag-card","tag-people"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}