A GROUP of disabled people who visited Leinster House to deliver accessibility training ended up being “trapped” after a lift broke down.
They said they were “astonished” at how inaccessible the building was after their visit to Dublin last year.
In an email, they described accessible toilets that weren’t large enough to cater for wheelchairs, buses being refused access to drop off people with mobility issues, and a broken-down lift that left five members “stranded”.
They told the head of the Oireachtas that members were stuck on a corridor and “very embarrassed” as able-bodied people had to “edge” their way past them on their way to offices or lunch.
A message said: “From the very start, we encountered barriers and exclusion.”
The visit was made by members of the HSE Gold Star Disability Awareness Training programme and volunteers from Tipperary last June on the invitation of an Oireachtas member.
In the email, they said the room where they delivered their training session was inaccessible on “a number of disability access levels”.
When members tried to go downstairs to the restaurant, one lift broke down and another was out of service.
The email said: “The lift to offer access to the lower corridor en route to the restaurant broke down when we had five people safely down, leaving others stranded at the top.”
The message continued: “Every person there was tired, embarrassed, disappointed, hungry and let down once more in terms of their rights to universal access and the dignity of using a toilet privately.”
It said these were just some of the issues that needed to be addressed and asked for a meeting with Oireachtas management.
In response, the Clerk of the Dail Peter Finnegan expressed his “sincere apologies” for how the visit had unfolded.
He said: “We fell well short of the standards that people are entitled to expect when they visit their National Parliament.”
