Louth County Council has been providing provide free sanitary products in all public buildings across the County, including town halls, sports centres and libraries since 2019 thanks to a notice of motion from Sinn Féin Councillor Joanna Byrne.

In July this year Louth County Council received funding from the Department of Health to implement Period Poverty assistance so Cllr Byrne said the Council should look to expand the scheme and use the ring-fenced funds to roll it out to provide similar assistance to local community groups.

Cllr Byrne is delighted to announce that Louth County Council are now seeking expressions of interest from charities and community and voluntary groups for free period products, under LCC’s Period Poverty Initiative.

Expressions of interest can be emailed to periodpoverty@louthcoco.ie before 4.30pm on Wednesday 29^th November, outlining details of the organisation and how many individuals would benefit from this endeavour.

“Period Poverty is when a person struggles to or is unable to access sanitary products due to financial constraints, forcing people to use makeshift and inadequate protection” Cllr Byrne said.

“Although affordability is one of the main barriers for people in period poverty, particularly now in this cost of living crisis, there are also cultural and social reasons why (some) women cannot access period products. These combined factors are seeing a growing demand among charities and voluntary groups throughout this county for sanitary products.

“I want to commend Louth County Council for supporting my calls for this and for leading the way since 2019 in recognising the need for Period Poverty assistance in public buildings, but furthermore for once again flying the flag for women in this county and rolling out this assistance to community groups and charities, which will hopefully help relieve the burden for many.”