Taxi driver ordered to pay blind woman €2,000

A TAXI driver has been ordered to pay a blind woman €2,000 in compensation because he refused to carry her guide dog.

The driver added “insult to her humiliation” by suggesting her guide dog could travel in the boot, an Equality Tribunal officer found.

The woman arrived at Dublin airport off a flight from Manchester on August 5th, 2006.

She was travelling with two men, one of whom was partially blind and who also had a guide dog.

The taxi driver at the top of the rank at Dublin airport waved her away saying he would not carry her because of her guide dog.

She had intended to travel separately from her travelling companion with the other guide dog.

The woman responded by reminding the taxi driver that he was legally obliged to carry guide dogs unless he had a medical card showing that he was allergic to dogs.

Her travelling companion also complained to the taxi driver who responded by saying that he could not take a guide dog as he was collecting guests from a wedding just over an hour later.

When one of the party threatened to take the registration plate of the taxi driver to complain, the taxi driver offered to take the guide dog in the boot.

The blind woman took the taxi driver to the Equality Tribunal. The driver argued that his Mercedes car was too small in any case to take three people, their luggage and two guide dogs.

Equality officer Gary O’Doherty said the taxi driver’s excuse that he did not want dog hairs on the seat because he was picking up wedding guests was “no justification for refusing to take a person with a disability in his vehicle”.

He held that the taxi driver was well aware that it was illegal not to carry guide dogs and was, therefore, in breach of the Equal Status Acts which prohibits discrimination against somebody on the basis of disability.

None of the parties to the tribunal was named in the judgment.