Doors can't be closed in the six special toilets for disabled people while wheelchairs are inside at Shannon Airport's new multi-million euro terminal.
The Disabled People of Clare group has highlighted the inadequacies of the situation and claim they are in breach of building regulations.
Mr Tom Clifford of Killaloe, whose wife has been using a wheelchair following a stroke two years ago, said: "Under Government regulations, new buildings are required to provide toilet and other facilities for the disabled which are proper and satisfactory. When a wheelchair user goes into one of the six new toilets at Shannon, the door cannot be closed when the wheelchair is inside the cubicle. That's because the doors open inwards and in airports toilet doors cannot open outwards under security precautions, which means that the disabled person has to use the toilet while the door remains open."
The Clare organisation has brought the problem to the attention of Aer Rianta and is also critical of the fact that promises of extra and more convenient car parking facilities for the disabled have not yet been honoured.
Pointing out that an airport with 2.4 million passengers a year and capable of handling double that number only provided four slots for disabled drivers in a short-term car-park, Mr Clifford said that even those provided were not adequate. "While they are close to the terminal building, they were stuck into a corner so that one of the spaces can only be entered by reversing in. I was told by Aer Rianta that a further six spaces would be provided for disabled parking", he said.