The Office of Public Works (OPW) has paid more than €35,000 to rent a cottage on an Blascaod Mór (Great Blasket Island) off west Kerry this summer so that the public could use its toilet.
Around 12,000 people visit the writers' island, abandoned in 1953, and which has yet to be provided with permanent toilet and landing facilities.
After publicity last year, and claims visitors were going to the toilet in the ruins of Peig's old house, the OPW earlier this year reached a lease agreement with the owner of a cottage on the island for the provision of a toilet for the public.
The rental fee for the cottage on an Blascaod Mór is €35,000 for the entire season, the OPW have now revealed.
There are additional charges for cleaning, restocking, waste management and general maintenance as required.
Meanwhile, the OPW have appointed 'an architect-led multidisciplinary team to assess options on the island for alternative toilets’ and his work is ongoing, a spokesman said.
Pier facilities are some way off but tender documents for studies are to be published shortly.
On his first ever visit to an Blascaod Mór in Co Kerry, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said landing facilities and other essential infrastructure work - postponed previously - on the unique island was now the focus.
No decision on the type of landing facility, pier or pontoon on the island can be made until strict environmental assessments are carried out.
Studies including foreshore and an underwater study to assess environmental criteria were needed and archaeologists have been on the island carrying out work.
The OPW, the NPWS along with the Department of the Gaeltacht and Kerry County Council were all involved in a steering committee set up for the pier and other essential infrastructure
Two weeks ago the Taoiseach and Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW and the Gaeltacht, Patrick O'Donovan visited the former home on Blascaod Mór of author Tomás Ó Criomhthain, which has been restored.
The spokesman for the OPW said a senior Officials group has been convened to assess options for improving landing facilities to an Blascaod Mór and Dún Chaoin pier. It is expected that invitations to tender for a feasibility study will be issued in the coming weeks.
