High tech hygiene: No more arguments about who left the toilet seat up. Domestic harmony may be one of the indirect results of a new computerised and environmentally friendly loo.
The Magic Clean bidet toilet seat is a portable, "clip-on" device which is now being sold in Ireland and Britain by a Galway-based company.
Designed for senior citizens and people with a disability or debilitating illness, it should also appeal to anyone concerned about personal hygiene, according to its supplier.
The seat is equipped with both bidet and blow-drier, so eliminating the need for toilet paper. It has a built-in water pump and a hydraulically-powered lid, which allows for "soft" - and very definite - closing after use.
Its portability means that people with disabilities can use it in hotels and workplaces, while it also affords dignity to senior citizens afflicted with arthritis or immobility - and it can be used in the childcare sector.
Mr Richard O'Flaherty of QQ Trading in Oranmore, Co Galway, had first-hand experience of the device during a visit to Japan in the late 1990s. He spent four years trying to find a manufacturer who would produce such seats to EU requirements. "The Japanese weren't interested in the European market, but I found a company in Korea, eventually, and have been importing from there for the past year."
The retail price of €599 includes VAT, delivery and installation, but electrics have to be installed by a qualified electrician. The seat was shortlisted in the new product Interbuild Awards for 2004 - associated with Britain's largest trade exhibition.
One of QQ Trading's earliest customers has been the Irish Wheelchair Association daycare and respite centre in Kilkenny, while the ESB has recently agreed to purchase one for an employee at one of its power stations in Munster.
O'Flaherty is a former Greek scholar, and quotes Mimnermus, a Greek poet who flourished around 630 BC, in relation to the positive response he has received so far. Mimnermus was author of the much-quoted line, "what would life be, what pleasure, without golden Aphrodite". "In that verse, he wrote about the indignity of "painful old age", but with one of these seats, he wouldn't have to worry about that at all . . ."