MINISTER FOR the Environment Phil Hogan was tight-lipped yesterday at the announcement of a new accessibility award in Dublin.
Despite the best efforts of journalists and the presence of two press officers from the Department of the Environment, Mr Hogan declined to talk to the press.
Arriving late for the launch of Able Tourism in Blanchardstown, Dublin, a quality mark for businesses accessible to tourists with disabilities, Mr Hogan was bustled into an upstairs function room. Members of the press, who followed, were initially locked out of the room, but were eventually allowed to attend.
After the Minister’s speech, the press waited outside to speak to him while he posed for photographs and were told he did not have time to talk.
When approached and asked a question, the Minister smiled and kept walking while one of his nearby press officers urged him forward saying, “Just keep going, just keep going”.
The night before he was heckled by up to 150 protesters over the introduction of the household charge when he attended a function in Carlow. Some of them attempted to hit the Minister’s car with their placards as he left a function to launch Carlow museum.
Yesterday, speaking at the function he attended in Dublin, he commended a push towards greater accessibility and said it was “very much in sync” with what his department was trying to do.
He praised those behind the quality mark – Excellence Ireland Quality Association, Fáilte Ireland and Rehab Ireland – for its development.
Mr Hogan said the mark was a prime example of how local businesses could create new job opportunities and said it would become a “commercial imperative” for people in the hospitality sector.
“It’s a very appropriate time to be expanding the tourist product into a ready-made market that we often take for granted,” he said.
The Able Tourism Q Mark will be awarded to hotels, self-catering accommodation and caravan and camping parks that meet standards of accessibility. The standards require facilities such as accessible bathrooms, bedrooms and kitchens and supports such as personal alarms.
Mr Hogan also presented the Q Mark to five businesses: the Crowne Plaza hotels in Blanchardstown and Santry, as well as Kilmore Cottages in Wexford, Blarney Caravan and Camping Park in Cork, and the River Valley Holiday Park in Wicklow.
