Bus Éireann has been directed to carry out an urgent review of its disability access policies after a finding that a refusal to allow a man travel with his support dog was discriminatory.
Galway man Robert Cantwell told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) he asked a local manager for permission to take the dog on board a dozen times before finally initiating proceedings against the company under the Equal Status Act, 2000.
The manager told him his “hands were tied” – but in a decision published on Wednesday, the tribunal ruled the bus company’s actions were discriminatory and ordered it to pay €1,500 in compensation.
Mr Cantwell told the WRC in February that the company of the small dog, named Osho, was important to him for managing his depression and social anxiety, particularly when travelling by bus.
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He said that because of lifelong partial paralysis following a brain injury he suffered at the age of eight, he found it difficult to walk and needed to get to the sea to swim for therapy.
Mr Cantwell said he first contacted Peter Melia, a local Bus Éireann service delivery manager, on January 11th, 2022, after Osho was refused access to the bus.
Mr Melia told him his hands were “tied” on the matter and advised him his dog would have to be “clearly identifiable either by coat or harness” to identify it strongly as a “working dog”, Mr Cantwell said.
Mr Cantwell said the manager also told him Osho would either have to be trained as a service dog or Mr Cantwell would have to spend €3,000 to acquire a “properly trained dog” from an “approved charity”.
The complainant said he spoke to Mr Melia “on at least 11 other occasions requesting permission” up to April 2022, when he resorted to serving Mr Melia with the Equal Status Act statutory notice form ES1 – warning that he would take a complaint.
Bus Éireann failed to attend when Mr Melia’s complaint was first called on for hearing in February this year, when the complainant gave evidence – later stating in correspondence that it had “overlooked” the hearing due to “internal miscommunication” and confirming receipt of the statutory notice form.
Company representatives said the reason for refusal was “clearly explained” to Mr Cantwell and that its rules were clear that it would carry guide dogs and assistance dogs “free of charge and without restrictions” – but that they had to be “clearly identifiable either by coat or harness”.
Adjudicating officer Louise Boyle had questioned Mr Cantwell on whether he knew that he could simply have ordered a harness marked “assistance dog” on the internet.
The complainant said he didn’t know that was a possibility – and that he “would not want to run the risk” of refusal while using such a harness.
Asked the same question, Mr Melia and another company witness, senior employee relations manager John Sheridan, said the company might have to amend its policies to stop “such harnesses” being used.
In her decision, the adjudicator said the medical letters exhibited to the tribunal were “in the main, persuasive” in supporting Mr Cantwell’s “credible” evidence that his mental health disability was “greatly reduced with the presence of the dog Osho”.
“It would appear from the evidence and submissions of the respondent that the policy is in place and therein ends the matter,” Ms Boyle wrote.
“Owing to their failure to give any such consideration to providing reasonable accommodation and their failure to focus on adequately engaging with the complainant I find that the respondent engaged in a prohibited act and discriminated against the complainant,” she wrote.
She ordered €1,500 in compensation to Mr Cantwell.