A well-known Dublin pub has been ordered to install wheelchair-accessible toilets and pay compensation following a finding of discrimination against it.
The case was taken by radio presenter Olan McGowan, a wheelchair user and presenter of the RTÉ programme that deals with issues relating to disability, Outside the Box. He took a case under the Intoxicating Liquor Act against Searsons pub on Baggot Street.
The claim of discrimination arose from his experience when attending a college reunion on October 22nd last. The group reserved an area of the pub and ordered food. During the evening, McGowan, accompanied by a friend, approached one of the barmen and asked for a wheelchair-accessible toilet.
The barman told them there was none, and suggested they go to the Waterloo Bar nearby. He did not offer any apology or assistance to McGowan, who had to leave the pub and use the facilities in the Waterloo Bar, before rejoining his friends.
McGowan then sought the help of the Equality Authority, the statutory body responsible for promoting equality and seeking to eliminate discrimination at work and in the provision of goods and services.
The authority asked the pub to clarify what efforts were made to cost the provision of a wheelchair-accessible toilet. No information on this was offered by the pub up to and including the date of the hearing, according to the authority.
In the District Court, Judge O'Donnell made an order, to which the pub consented, to provide wheelchair-accessible toilets by December 1st this year, in accordance with Part M of Building Regulations.
He also ordered the pub to pay €500 in compensation to McGowan, and a further €500 to the Irish Wheelchair Association.