Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Ombudsman because at the minute the approach is one of pass the buck and blame someone else. I want to know about access to public buildings. My own town of Cashel has a gold star. It was not until I went around the town with your chaps, who are dead since, and may they rest in peace, that we found out, even after being awarded a gold star, how much more needed to be done. We had an incidence in Leinster House and a lot of work needs to be done. We had representatives of the Irish Wheelchair Association here a couple of weeks ago and there was chaos. Maybe this matter has come the attention of the Ombudsman but we have asked representatives of Tipperary County Council to conduct an audit of all of its public buildings to see if toilets, etc., are accessible. I must say we found it unbelievable that people got caught in some of the places. After millions of euro have been spent on public buildings wheelchair toilets were not accessible. We had one incident where a girl told us about a public house that was alleged to be wheelchair accessible but the facilities were down steps. The public house was being passed off as being accessible for disabled people.