DUBLIN Airport in festive times like those we've just been through is a joyous place with its throngs of homeward bound emigrants passing through those glass doors into the busy arrivals hall, to embrace expectant "relatives and friends.
However, among these happy, gift laden returnees are less happy individuals who have found the long march along the corridors, up the escalators and through the baggage hall and customs area a real struggle. They arrive emotionally exhausted and depleted of energy, less ready to meet whoever awaits them.
These people, about one in 50 of all passengers, are not disabled enough to travel in wheelchairs and yet not able to walk the long distance from where their plane docks, to the arrivals hall. The distance to be travelled is particularly arduous for those travellers arriving through Dublin Airport's Pier A, which is some 300 metres from the arrivals hall (there is a moving walkway for 80 metres of the journey).
The passengers' problems were once alleviated by the provision of an airport buggy which would carry between three and six passengers from aircraft to arrivals.
Yet - and in spite of much campaigning by Irish Times columnist Maeve Binchy - the buggy service by Aer Rianta's internal transportation division has simply evaporated.
"As someone with arthritis that is not bad enough to need a wheelchair, I am still not strong enough to walk the long distance from the aeroplane to the arrivals hall or from departures to the outgoing plane," Ms Binchy explains.
"I was delighted to discover that an airport buggy was put in place last year and when my collection of Irish Times articles was launched in March of this year, I was so pleased that the buggy was in place that I invited Mr John Loughrey, the secretary of the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications, to the launch.
"So I couldn't believe it when I discovered the buggy was gone when I came through Dublin airport later in the year. I think it is a huge disservice to anyone who has difficulty walking that there is not transport for them. Airport buggies are in place in almost every other airport and there is no stigma whatsoever attached to using them," she explains.
"Although I feel very strongly about this issue, I don't want to become a single issue campaigner. I don't want to be called `Maeve Airport Buggy Binchy'," she adds.
Oliver McCann, public relations officer with Aer Rianta, says the company only used airport buggies while they were waiting for the travelator to be put in place. "Up to 90 per cent of passengers use the travelator and we have had very few complaints from people since we discontinued the buggy service. In fact, we got more complaints when it was running because it was often at the wrong end of the building to where it was needed," he says.
However, Pat Wylie, secretary of the Commission on the Status for People with Disabilities, says the Commission has had complaints from people about the lack of a buggy in Dublin Airport. "We are currently looking for a meeting with the Chief Executive of Aer Rianta over this matter. Anybody with locomotive difficulties including children and older people find it extremely difficult to walk through the airport terminal building to and from planes," he says.
"Aer Rianta's response to such criticisms is that passengers are in fact the responsibility of the airline company with whom they are travelling. "The airline company officially provides ground handling for passengers," says Padraic Regan, head of services, Aer Rianta.
AER Lingus does in fact offer a "meet and assist" service which, when prebooked, means that a wheelchair and an assistant will be ready for the passenger on arrival at the check in desk. Other carriers such as Ryanair, who are in fact the main users of Pier A, also offer a service to meet passengers in wheelchairs at the check in desk.
Such services are, however, by their nature for people who are very incapacitated: they do not address the needs of those with simply limited mobility. For many of them, the problem remains.
