“Can you imagine having to ask your husband to help you in and out of the bath?”: Mayo DPO

A disabled woman living in a brand new council house in Westport has told councillors she still cannot shower independently because the home was fitted with a bath, even though the council knew her needs before the bathroom was installed.

Donna Gavin, secretary of the Mayo Disabled Persons’ Organisation (Mayo DPO), shared her experience with the Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District as she called for disabled people to be involved in the planning and design of council projects from the outset.

“None of them work”

Ms Gavin said her house is in a 50-unit social housing development where 10% of homes were meant to be built to universal design, with wider doors and halls, and 5% to a “universal design plus” standard, meaning they would be wheelchair-liveable, with a downstairs bedroom and a workable shower room.

“All 50 are perfect, brilliant,” she said of the first category. But of the second: “None of them work.”

She said the council was aware of her requirements while building was under way. “The construction people were still on site when the council were aware. The bathrooms hadn’t gone in when they were aware of what I needed, but they still went ahead and put in the bath.”

She is now waiting for the council to adapt the house, but said the bath cannot be removed until funding is secured. In the meantime, she relies on her husband to help her wash, and said the equipment supplied by her occupational therapist is not suitable for her disabilities.

“I need my husband at home so I can have a shower because they can’t even take the bath out until they get funding,” she said. “I’m a 43-year-old woman... Can you imagine having to ask your wife or your husband to help you in and out of the bath so that you can have a simple shower?”

“It would save money”

Ms Gavin said the situation was avoidable and costly. “If somebody had a disabled voice at the beginning, at the planning stages, you wouldn’t have to search for the €75,000 from the government, from the grant, to adapt a brand new council house, because it’ll all be done at the same time. It will be much, much cheaper.”

“If you have people like the DPO at the design stage, at the consultation stage, you wouldn’t have to find that extra funding to fix that. It would just be done, and it would save money,” she said. “That’s where the costs are: in retrofitting.”

She acknowledged councillors’ concerns about funding. “I understand funding is an issue. We get that,” she said, noting that Mayo DPO itself has received only just over €4,000 in grant funding, having applied for €9,000.

Earlier in her presentation, she had spoken about how barriers can keep disabled people at home. “Some days I don’t leave my house,” she said, explaining that she sometimes lacks the support to get into town.

“Nothing about us, without us”

The Mayo Disabled Persons’ Organisation (Mayo DPO) has called on councillors to involve disabled people in the planning and design of council projects from the outset, telling the Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District that accessibility should be “considered from the very beginning” rather than “added afterwards”.

The meeting opened with condolences on the sudden death of Avril Greham, the much loved disability advocate who helped set up the organisation.

Cllr Neil Cruise described her as “a powerful figure in advocating for people with disabilities” who “will be sorely missed in North Mayo and throughout this county of ours”.

Cllr Richard Finn also noted her contribution to groups including Autism Friendly Ballina.

The largest minority in Ireland

Donna Gavin told members the Mayo DPO group is “run by disabled people for disabled people”. She said it is “not a charity” and “not a service provider” but a representative organisation whose role is to bring lived experience “into the rooms where decisions are being made” - like the municipal district meeting in Claremorris.

Ms Gavin said 22% of the population of Ireland lives with a disability, which equates to more than 30,000 people in Mayo.

“We are the largest minority in Ireland, and we are the easiest to get into,” she said. “All you would have to do is trip one day and break your leg.”

Invoking the disability movement’s slogan, “nothing about us without us”, she said: “Don’t design something and then ask us if it’s accessible. Bring us into the conversation while it’s being designed.”

She stressed that disability is not only about wheelchair access, and that planning must also consider people with sensory impairments, intellectual disabilities, neurodivergent people and those with hidden impairments.

Four requests

The organisation asked the council for: formal recognition of Mayo DPO as a representative voice of disabled people in the county; a commitment to ongoing engagement rather than one-off consultation; development of a Mayo Disability Inclusion and Access Strategy, created in partnership with disabled people; and meaningful DPO representation within relevant council structures, including housing and disability planning.

Ms Gavin noted that Sligo County Council has worked with Sligo DPO on a similar document. Locally, she said the group would welcome early engagement on significant public projects, which could include regular meetings, accessibility walkabouts in towns and villages, and sharing plans before decisions are finalised. She also offered Disability Equality Training, written by disabled people, to council departments.

“This isn’t about criticising councils. It’s about working together to get things right,” she said. “Sometimes we’ll agree, sometimes we’ll challenge you, but meaningful participation has to allow for both.”

Funding concerns

Councillors were broadly supportive but pointed to funding constraints. Cllr Finn said: “As a council, we’re on your side,” but added that the council is restrained by the funding available from central government.

Cllr Damien Ryan praised the presentation as “practical and absolutely the way that things should be done” and said he would endorse involving Mayo DPO in improvements to towns, villages and public buildings.

Cllr Deirdre Lawless said the group’s voice “should be central”, while noting that the council also has to work with Transport Infrastructure Ireland on roads.

Ms Gavin responded that the organisation understands funding pressures. She said that accessibility is cheaper when built in from the start, and that public buildings must be accessible by law.

Cllr Alma Gallagher, whose father was a wheelchair user, described Claremorris railway station as “a model best practice” for accessibility. She said many improvements were “low-hanging fruit” that cost little, citing footpaths blocked by parked cars and unpainted yellow boxes outside a Western Care day service.

Council officials unaware of DPO

Later in the meeting, during a discussion on a planned 14-unit council housing development at Barr na hÁille in Claremorris, Cllr Lawless asked whether the DPO had been consulted on the design, including meeting the 5% threshold for accessible homes.

Matt Stevens of Mayo County Council said the council had not engaged with the DPO. “To be honest, we weren’t aware of their existence prior to today’s meeting, but we’d be happy to do so,” he said. He added that the council aims for 30% of its dwellings to be age-friendly and universally designed, a target it hopes to have enshrined in the next county development plan, and said it would engage with the DPO “on future designs going forward”.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme