A disability awareness group has branded its visit to the Dáil last year as "disastrous" after a number of its members became "trapped" in a lift in Leinster House while preparing to deliver accessibility training.
The group from the HSE Gold Star Disability Awareness programme said its members were left feeling "very embarrassed" and "disappointed" by the incident.
The organisation provides training in the area of disability awareness and accessibility.
The Irish Mirror reports that the entourage encountered toilets that were not large enough to fit wheelchairs, buses were refused access to drop off people with mobility issues closer to the venue and a lift broke down which left those affected feeling "stranded".
They claimed that, such was the poor accessibility, able-bodied members of the building's staff were forced to "edge" their way group in the corridors on the way to their lunch.
“From the moment of our arrival, we encountered barriers and exclusion,” said the group, which included volunteers from Tipperary who attended 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 were trying to go downstairs to the restaurant, one lift broke down and another was discovered to be out of service.
“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."
“Once these five people tried to continue to access the restaurant, they were met with a note on the second lift that said, ‘Temporarily Out of Order’.”
The email 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.”
The group is asking for a meeting with Oireachtas management to discuss improvements to the building's accessibility.
The Clerk of the Dáil, Peter Finnegan, shared his "sincere apologies" for the events that unfolded during the visit.
He said: We fell well short of the standards that people are entitled to expect when they visit their National Parliament."
"A representative of the group returned last July to give advice on how Leinster House could be made more accessible for people with disabilities.
However, progress has proven slow, particularly around the replacement and upgrading of lifts.
