asked the Minister for Finance if he is aware that there are no facilities such as ramps and specially adapted toilets for physically handicapped visitors in the National Gallery; and if he will provide such facilities in time for the projected visit by handicapped children to the gallery on 1 January 1979.
Written Answers. - Facilities for Physically Handicapped.
307.
I have asked the Commissioners of Public Works to deal as quickly and as sympathetically as possible with a request made by the National Gallery authorities for the provision of a ramp for disabled persons visiting the gallery. The suggestion that specially adapted toilet facilities for disabled persons should also be provided is proper in the first instance to the gallery authorities but, in the circumstances, I have requested that the Commissioners urgently consult the gallery director on the matter.
It is unlikely that the question of an appropriate ramp and toilet facilities will be definitively settled before 1 January 1979 but the Commissioners have undertaken to provide a temporary ramp at the gallery entrance on that day.