An “abusive” Dublin taxi driver has been ordered to pay €12,000 to a visually impaired couple for refusing them service and driving off without them and their guide dog at Christmastime.
Anthony Clarke and his partner Lisa O’Donovan told an equality hearing the driver, Abiodun Dongo, was “abusive and aggressive” and left them “hugely embarrassed and humiliated” in the December 27, 2024 incident at Heuston Station in Dublin.
Mr Clarke, who is blind, and Ms O’Donovan, who is also visually impaired, have now secured findings of disability discrimination in breach of the Equal Status Act 1998 against Mr Dongo at the Workplace Relations Commisison (WRC).
The couple had travelled from Cork that morning with the assistance of Mr Clarke’s guide dog, and approached Mr Dongo in his car at the railway station’s taxi rank, they said in their complaints to the tribunal.
Mr Dongo “reacted abruptly” to their request for a taxi service and said he would not take the guide dog, they said.
The taxi man shouted at the couple in an “aggressive and abusive” manner and then “wound up the car window and drove off abruptly”, they told the Commission.
Mr Clarke and Ms O’Donovan said they were both “hugely embarrassed and humiliated by the experience”.
The complaints were called on twice for hearing in January and April this year in Dublin.
Adjudication officer Valerie Murtagh noted in decision documents published today that Mr Dongo “did not attend”.
She wrote that both Mr Clarke and Ms O’Donovan were “credible” witnesses and upheld their complaints on the basis of their uncontested evidence.
They were both “discriminated against on grounds of disability” and were also denied reasonable accommodation by Mr Dongo, she found.
“I find in favour of the complainant,” Ms Murtagh wrote in both cases.
She directed payment of €6,000 each to Mr Clarke and Ms O’Donovan for the effects of the discrimination.
“I further order the respondent to ensure, going forward, that he is in compliance with the relevant equality legislation,” Ms Murtagh concluded.
