A disabled mother of two who said the operators of Emerald Park discriminated against her by refusing to give her a pass to skip the queues for attractions without seeing a letter from a doctor has won €3,000 in compensation.
Alison Walsh from Enfield, Co Meath, told an equality hearing in February that she showed staff her disabled driver’s badge, her driving licence for an adapted car and her Public Services Card, but couldn’t find medical correspondence to prove to their satisfaction she had an “inability to queue”.
Her claim under the Equal Status Act alleging discrimination on the grounds of disability was upheld by the Workplace Relations Commission in a decision published on Tuesday morning.
Ms Walsh, a qualified medical scientist and mother of two, said her ability to queue was “severely impaired” as she suffered from muscle seizures, spasms and incontinence as a result of spina bifida and neurosarcoidosis.
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This left her to rely on mobility aids including crutches, a wheelchair and the mobility scooter she brought on a family day out to the theme park in September 2021, when it was trading as Tayto Park, she said.
“I was excluded and sat at the side, waiting and watching,” Ms Walsh said. “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.”
Denying discrimination, the theme park’s barrister Mary-Paula Guinness BL, appearing instructed by Caoimhe Connolly of Moran & Ryan LLP, said medical documentation was being sought to make sure the queue pass system wasn’t “abused” by members of the public who did not need accommodation.
Charles Coyle, the operating company’s managing director, said in evidence that out of 730,000 visitors to the park last year, “between eight and ten per cent had a disability”.
“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.
Mr Coyle said that when the theme park reopens next month, people with a disability would be able to present a blue badge to a manager, who would be “able to use their discretion” on issuing a queue pass.
“They very much regret the experience the complainant had, but you weren’t discriminated against,” Ms Guinness said in closing.
“I wasn’t asked for something stating I had an inability to queue – I was asked for my diagnosis,” Ms Walsh said.
“The park’s great, the children loved it, but we haven’t returned, and we didn’t because of the treatment we received,” said the complainant’s sister, Linda Walsh, at the close of the hearing.
In her decision, WRC adjudicating officer Marie Flynn noted that there had been no way for someone to appeal or escalate the refusal if they could not produce the documentation sought by the park.
“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.
She quoted Justice Iseult O’Malley’s description of the legislation as a “remedial” law intended to “reduce the social wrong of discrimination based on improper considerations” – which was to be interpreted “widely and liberally”.
Upholding Ms Walsh’s discrimination complaint, Ms Flynn ordered Ashbourne Visitor Centre Limited t/a Emerald Park to pay her €3,000 in compensation.