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A JUDGE SAID today that he has felt “mentally sick” over the “rotten” fixed charge penalty system gardaí have in place to prosecute speeding motorists.
At Ennis District Court, Judge Patrick Durcan made his comment after ordering that the top garda overseeing the force’s contentious Fixed Charge Penalty System for motoring offences come before him to answer for why the system is “rotten”.
At the traffic court today, Judge Durcan said:
Four months ago after a court here where there was a number of these cases, I was barely able to drive home, I was so mentally sick at the way the whole thing isn’t working.
Judge Durcan said: “There is something rotten in the whole system.”
The judge has been a vociferous critic of the system in response to motorists telling him that they haven’t received the fixed charge penalties from the garda unit based in Thurles, that issues the notices nationally, resulting in the case being struck out.
Judge Durcan said that if the fixed charge unit sent out the notices by registered post, it would get over the difficulty.
In a recent Dáil reply on the issue, Tánaiste and then Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald told Deputy Tommy Broughan that the cost of posting Fixed Charge Penalty Notices (FCPN) last year was €250,000 and if the notices were sent by registered post, it would have cost almost ten times that at €2.4 million.
A female motorist told Judge Durcan that she didn’t receive the Fixed Charge Penalty Notice from the Thurles unit that would have given her time to pay fines for two speeding offences.
However, as she didn’t receive the FCPNs, she received two court summons and is now liable to higher penalty points on conviction.
Judge Durcan said that the case should be adjourned to allow Superintendent James Keane come to court to answer questions on the FCPN system.
He said: “We have to get to the bottom of this because it diminishes everything that everyone does.”
The judge told Garda Dermot O’Rourke: “I want you to contact Superintendent Keane’s office to find out what court he can be here and I want an explanation because there is something rotten in the whole system.”
Judge Durcan said: “I want to know why they are pursuing an appalling policy in relation to the serving of documents.”
After hearing details of a separate case where a motorist didn’t receive the FCPN from the Thurles unit, Judge Durcan said: “The sooner Superintendent Keane in Thurles wakes up the better and so that everything can be served by registered post and put the cost on the punter.”
He said: “I cannot understand why there isn’t some inquiry.
With all the talk about Templemore and all the various accounts for entertainment, I don’t know why there isn’t an inquiry in relation to Thurles and why they are not using the registered postal service.
Twenty minutes later, Garda O’Rourke returned to court to state that Superintendent Keane is no longer overseeing the fixed charge system and only in the last few days has assumed a new role in the force.
Garda O’Rourke said that Superintendent Keane’s successor will come to court on 6 October to speak to Judge Durcan on the issue.
Go girl !
@Riddled Fidl: sound feen.
Bond Villain
@Dave Connolly: I don’t know much about him but there’s something very unusual about the guy that I can’t put my finger on.
Bill Gates is villfied by the anti vaxx crowd wanting to put micochips in the covid vaccines but Elon who publicly has stated his idea for putting microchips into brains gets a free pass.
@Ally Mc Culladgh: it’s a great idea. Could cure blindness, deafness etc
And once she gets the vaccine that’s her and the community under the control of the evil tech lords! I for one welcome all this, pump me full of the vaccine and give me unlimited data and a bucket of Monster and I’ll be set to go!
They’ll have their own satellites?!! And not just one – BUT TWO?!!! The thermosphere is about to get very crowded if individual satellites are required for everyone.
@Steve: no, they are shared satellites. The article is a bit unclear tho! They each get a dish for home…
@Steve: They don’t have many up there at the moment but in order to provide the sort of coverage they are looking for they are talking about 30,000 devices in Low Earth Orbit eventually. If completed it will literally change the look of the night sky.
However, it’s certainly a much more efficient solution to broadband supply in rural areas than envisioned under the National Broadband Plan. Under the NBP those people would (eventually) have to be tied in to the fibre grid which would mean building a mini exchange and rolling out a 10+ km of fibre to connect the scattered houses. For the same 4 customers.
Spacex estimate the cost of their network, when complete, should come in around the $10Billion mark. It will cover the entire globe. We’re talking about paying €3Billion to cover the island of Ireland. One of us is doing it *wrong* and I’ll leave it there.
@John Considine: we should be on the phone to SpaceX immediately and be asking to be a test country for this StarLink internet. Could save us a few billion…which is much needed.
@HarveyLemonade: To their credit, ComReg have made consideration for the provision of such a service almost 4 years ago:
https://www.comreg.ie/media/dlm_uploads/2017/07/ComReg-1726sR.pdf
I believe Starlink hope to be operating commercially here by the end of the year. Presumably that means the application process for licensing is going well. I believe the costs will be comparatively high to start though. I remember reading the bi-directional satellite dish was going to cost €500. Found the article on the Indo:
“The service costs €99 per month plus a €499 charge for the required satellite dish and a €61 delivery fee.”
@HarveyLemonade: been saying since before the NBP was launched. Old world thinking and way too expensive.
@John Considine: shame you’re wrong though.
Fair play.
Hang on. Were the government not paying somebody a shed load of money to do this already?
@Dave Thomas: they’ll dump it the minute they get fibre
I have heard about this Space Ex Broad Band in the states..
It is a satellite of sum sort if my memory serves me.. getting great reviews
The system is called starlink and it is based on the low ceiling of the satellites in orbit and all u need is a dish and away u go..
Price wise I think is an issue great at start but goes up..
But I’d say well worth it..
@Sportmad: I thin the idea is to make it affordable! Everything Elon does is an attempt to make things cheaper – electric cars, rockets, tunnels, solar panels and now broadband. He has already reduced the cost of putting a rocket in space by 10s of millions
@David Kelly: yes that is his Model but the cost of entry is Cheap about $500 inc all equipment and attachments as it’s a portable device mainly..
But the reviewers if I’m not mistaken are complaining about the nominal user cost which is very high..
It is an incredible product to be fair but look at the Tesla car price out of reach of majority
We are in a dead zone also, was promised high speed ISDN line by May 2006, still waiting…
However we’ve been notified that we will have high speed by the end of this summer which is a huge relief as long as it’s not another false dawn, we’re only 6 miles from Tralee!
@David Grey: I’m only 6 miles from cork city, fibre a 200-300 metres north, south and west of me. Not in NBI plans until 2024 at the earliest. I’ve already registered with starlink for service before the end of the this year. Pay 45 a month already for single digit speeds from Vodafone, 99 a month for starlink but will be well worth it
“Eeey”
Many individuals and biz stuck in broadband never-ever land may be interested in “Plan B for #NBP” which I recently sent to Gov ministers, TDs etc about National Broadband Plan & potential of low-Earth orbit LEO sats like #Starlink.
Summary: http://bit.ly/3cyDb1A
I don’t blame anyone for getting starlink in, but good lord I hate that company for what they are doing to the night sky. By the time they are finished they will have tens of thousands of satellites meandering across the night sky. Star gazing will never be the same for anyone on the planet ever again. Astro photography also horrifically impacted.
I’ve just seen the 60 satalites pass over caherdaniel co Kerry. It’s mad looking. 13/5/21. .
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