Disabled campaigners lambasted a Dublin pub tonight over a bogus disabled toilet which has deceived wheelchair users.
The Mezz bar in Templebar features a red door with a gold wheelchair sign, indicating disabled facilities.
But the locked door is simply built into the wall and there is no toilet behind it. The Forum for People with Disabilities (FPD) said it was the most ridiculous case it had ever encountered.
"To have a door in a wall, pretending it's accessible to disabled people, is completely ludicrous. I don't know who they're trying to fool," said director Mr Mary Keogh.
The space behind the wall is occupied by a table and seats in the popular nightspot, which is part of the River House Hotel. Customers who have tried to open the disabled toilet door find it locked and have been told by staff that it is closed for `renovations'.
Ms Keogh said the bar was paying no attention to the needs of disabled people and was potentially violating the law. "You'd question if it was done just to fit in with the regulations and if there was an inspection there before."
Under Part M of the building regulations, any bar which is built after 1991 or which has carried out renovation work must provide toilets for disabled people.
The Equality Authority also said that under the Equal Status Act, there was an obligation on service providers to make a `reasonable accommodation' for disabled people.
Chief executive of the Equality Authority, Mr Niall Crowley, said he was concerned about the lack of adequate facilities for disabled people in some pubs.
"It blocks people with disabilities from participating in social and cultural life. It is a key barrier." He added that all evidence indicated that there was a serious access problem, which was not just confined to pubs and nightclubs.
Mr Peter Wickham, the manager of the Mezz bar, said he was not aware of the existence of the bogus toilet. "It's been a year and a half since I worked here - I'm just back since Monday. Whatever structural changes have been made, I'm not aware of them," he said.
He said that when he was in the bar, it did have a working toilet for disabled people beside the ladies toilet. He added that it was `absolutely' clear that a pub should not pretend to have such a toilet.
Mr Wickham said he would be raising the issue with the bar's owners. He pointed out that the hotel's downstairs nightclub, the Hub, had been renovated at great expense and did include full toilet facilities for disabled people.
PA