Galway Bay fm newsroom - Concert promoter MCD Productions has been ordered to pay €7,000 compensation to a Galway cancer patient who says she was left 'humiliated”' by her treatment by two security staff members when refused access to disabled bathroom facilities at a Paul Weller gig two years ago.
According to the Irish Times, the Workplace Relations Commission adjudicator Janet Hughes ordered MCD to pay Galway woman Anne Marie Davy the sum after finding that the promoter discriminated against Ms Davy on grounds of disability under the Equal Status Act.
The 55-year-old mother-of-four brought her action after she was refused access twice to disabled bathroom facilities at the Summer Series event at Trinity College Dublin in July 2019 by security staff employees of a security company employed by MCD for the event.
Ms Hughes found that MCD was vicariously liable for the actions of the security staff.
Prior to the event, Ms Davy emailed MCD to say she was an oncology patient, had additional medical needs which required the use of an accessible bathroom.
However, during the gig, Ms Davy was refused access to the disabled bathroom facilities.
Ms Davy gained access to the disabled toilets after a female colleague of the security man allowed access and apologised for her colleague’s actions.
However, at the end of the gig, Ms Davy was refused access a second time to the disabled toilets by a different security staff member.
In her findings, Ms Hughes said Ms Davy 'was subjected to discrimination in that she was twice refused access to the facilities for the disabled notwithstanding that she had a disability'.
Expressing regret over the incident, MCD managing director Denis Desmond said once the firm heard what had occurred, it offered its apologies to Ms Davy.
He said there were protocols in place which the security company did not adhere to on the night.
