Today, the Labour Party will introduce a bill into the Dáil to create legal standing for ‘No Wait Cards’ for people with chronic and invisible illnesses and who are in urgent need of toilet facilities.
Labour’s Equal Status (Access to Toilet Facilities) Bill 2025 aims to change this by placing No Wait Cards on a statutory footing, ensuring that retail shops and businesses with staff toilets make them available to those who need them.
‘No Wait Cards’ are issued by organisations such as Crohn’s & Colitis Ireland and Spinal Injuries Ireland and aim to empower individuals to request access to toilet facilities when urgency strikes.
The card is a critical support for many people with medical conditions such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which affects at least 40,000 people in Ireland, however, it has no legal standing in Ireland.
We were joined on The Agenda this morning by Labour TD & spokesperson on Social Protection; Children, Disability and Equality, Mark Wall, who told us more about this.