A disabled mother of two who said Emerald Park operators discriminated against her by giving her a pass to leave the tow lines without seeing a doctor’s letter has received €3,000 in compensation.
Alison Walsh, of Enfield, Co Meath, told an equality hearing in February that she showed her disability card, her adapted car driving license and her public services employee card.
But she was unable to find any medical correspondence to prove to her satisfaction that she had an “inability to queue”, reports RTE.
The Workplace Relations Commission supported her claim under the Equality Act alleging discrimination based on disability in a decision published today.
Ms Walsh, a qualified medical scientist and mother of two, said her ability to queue was “severely impaired” as she suffered from muscle spasms, cramps and incontinence as a result of spina bifida and neurosarcoidosis.
This left her reliant on mobility equipment, such as crutches, a wheelchair and the mobility scooter she took with her on a family trip to the theme park in September 2021 when it was operating as Tayto Park.
“I was excluded and sat at the side, waiting and watching. I was excluded due to the outright refusal to provide me with an accommodation that was available. I find the policy extremely difficult to understand – it seems to disable rather than enable,” Ms Walsh said, reports RTE.
Charles Coyle, managing director of the operating company, said that “between 8-10% had a disability” of the 730,000 visitors to the park last year.
“We had instances where the ride assistance pass queue was 15-20 minutes long. We had to bring in the additional layer to ensure the queue was kept for those who need it most and so that the queue could be kept to a minimum,” he said, reports RTE.
Mr Coyle said that when the theme park reopens next month, disabled people could hand a blue badge to a manager who could “able to use their discretion” to issue a queue pass.
“They very much regret the experience the complainant had, but you weren’t discriminated against,” Ms Guinness said in closing, reports RTE.
In her decision, WRC referee Marie Flynn noted that there was no way for anyone to appeal or lift the rejection if they could not provide the documents required by the field.
“In my view, the approach adopted by the respondent, when faced with a request for accommodation in the form of a ride assistance pass, was unreasonable, inflexible and contrary to the spirit of the [Equal Status] Act,” she wrote, reports RTE.
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