It’s not just Irish Water who are after your PPS number. It seems that if you have a bad time at Belvedere House, Gardens and Park its management will also look for your social security number.
A Mullingar family has expressed its shock over an alleged request by Belvedere for a PPS number and a bank account details in order to pay back a refund they felt they deserved after a disabled 15 year old girl did not get to enjoy a recent Halloween ‘Spook Walk’ at the tourist attraction.
The Begley family claim the disabled girl was effectively stranded for a number of hours in pitch darkness and in the bitter cold as they tried to find their way back from an event which they were told in advance was wheelchair friendly.
The family say they were also promised that a member of staff would attend to them and assist them during the ‘Spook Walk’ which ran on Friday 24, Saturday 25, Sunday 26 and Monday 27 October. They went on the Sunday night, paying €12 per adult and €6 for Naomi.
However, they said that once they arrived at Belvedere they were left alone, and were critical of the customer service which led to them getting a local TD and County Councillor involved in order to get a refund from the Westmeath County Council owned facility.
The Halloween nightmare for little Naomi Begley from Greenpark started when her elder sister Caroline Begley-Usher and her husband Declan arrived to Belvedere for a night-time walk young Naomi had been looking forward to all week.
A daughter of well known taxi company owner Assumpta and the late Tommy Begley, Naomi suffers from a very rare bone disease and requires around-the-clock care. Aged 15 she has a mental age of much younger, but her loving family says she wants to be a normal happy child, and when she heard about the chance to meet ghosts in Belvedere she was hugely excited, even asking to be brought out earlier.
ADVANCE CALL
Caroline told Topic she had rang Belvedere and was told the event was wheelchair accessible.
“It is a big deal to bring Naomi to something like that. Because of her chair she wouldn’t usually go to big things like this. We had to dose her with medication as she is in chronic pain most of the time. We padded her with heat packs and put extra layers of clothing on her. She was so hyped up about it, she couldn’t wait to go.”
When the three got there they made themselves known to staff and were told to wait in the courtyard. The walk started at 8pm but they say they were not approached by anyone. Caroline says she asked a member of staff where should they go. Having found out the first part of the walk would be a challenge for a wheelchair they were shown where to go to catch up with the walk. They pushed Naomi uphill towards the walkers, which the little girl could hear in the distance. When they got close they found the other children in among the trees were volunteers dressed as ghosts who were part of the entertainment. Naomi indicated that she wanted to go in, but Caroline and Declan could not navigate her chair through the terrain. As the ‘Spook Walk’ moved on, they tried to follow by path but ultimately got lost in the dark, with the by now very anxious 15 year old in a distressed state.
A volunteer approached them and tried to assist but he had to rejoin the main party ahead. The trio walked for some time in the dark, trying to find their way back to the visitor centre. It took them some time and by now, little Naomi was very upset.
“We could have been out there walking all night. We didn’t have a clue where we were going. It was pitch dark and it was not a path for any kind of wheelchair and Naomi was frozen to her bones,” Caroline said.
When they reached the Visitor Centre they found to their horror that the Spook Walk they were on was over.
REFUND
They asked the receptionist about a refund and were told to contact the manager on the Monday morning. They did so, and they received a call on Monday afternoon.
Caroline says the phone call left her in a distressed state, claiming that she was told she had chosen to take Naomi to the event and that if she wanted a refund she would have to supply a PPS number and a Bank Account number for revenue reasons.
“I had paid in cash so I expected a cash refund,” Caroline told Topic this week. “I was told it was wheelchair accessible and that was the reason we went out. No one offered an apology afterwards. It’s very simple to say you’re sorry and everything could have been cleared up quickly. This has given me a bad taste for Belvedere”.
Caroline asked her local TD Robert Troy (FF) and Councillor Peter Burke (FG) to intervene and the two men managed to secure a refund, which Caroline has yet to collect from Belvedere.
She raised the issue on Belvedere’s Facebook page where she was informed that her query had been resolved and that the effort to accommodate her included Belvedere staff in place as volunteers on the night. A lot of the other feedback on the page was positive about the walks, which were part of ‘The Frightening’ a series of events to mark Halloween.
When Topic contacted Westmeath County Council for a reply on the incident, an official reply stated that the claims are being investigated and the Council “will revert to you in due course.”
