THE last time Sinead Murtagh went to vote, her wheelchair had to be lifted over the step which confronted her at the top of the ramp at the entrance. Then the shelf in the polling booth was too high - so somebody else voted for her.
Yesterday she decided not to bother. "I am on my own today," she said, "and unless I have somebody to physically lift me in there's no point."
Later she acceded to a request" to go down to the polling station - Our Lady's Mount, at Harold's Cross Road - with an Irish Times photographer and surmounted the obstacles with the aid of a helpful official.
It is not a procedure which a person afflicted by shyness would be likely to go through.
The irony of the situation is not lost on her. Ms Murtagh works with the Forum of People with Disabilities, which lobbies the Government on, among other things, access to buildings.
"There are very few that can even get there, let alone get in," says Ms Murtagh of the barriers facing people with disabilities. "Most people don't even get that far.
"We are denied a postal vote because it is claimed it would be open to abuse. But no evidence has ever been put forward that it would be abused by people with disabilities."
She could vote at home but the procedure would have to be witnessed by a garda "as if", she says, "you are doing something wrong".
She is especially annoyed that people with disabilities cannot back their political demands with their votes.
The Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities recently said all polling stations' and booths should be accessible and that people with disabilities who cannot get to a polling station should be entitled to a postal vote.