CITY TRIBUNE
Bus passenger fined over aggressive behaviour towards driver
A chef, who took exception to a bus driver asking for more money to fully cover a fare, was convicted and fined for being threatening and abusive in public, at Galway District Court.
Judge Mary Fahy did not accept that the driver was being offensive when he corrected the defendant for underpaying a student fare by 20c, and said that it may have been an issue of cultural differences.
“‘Hey’ is not a derogatory term, it’s used to bring something to your attention – you totally over-reacted in my view,” she told him.
Alaa Al Bataineh (40), with an address at 58 Droim Oir, Clybaun Road, had pleaded not guilty to being threatening and abusive on two separate dates in November 2016.
Ciaran Kenny, a driver with City Direct Bus, told the court that he was operating the 412 service, along the Western Distributor Road to Eyre Square, on November 14 when he approached the bus stop opposite Clybaun Stores where there were up to eight people waiting.
“The defendant boarded, showed me a student ID card and put €1.30 in the chute – I informed him that the fair structure had changed (some months earlier), and that it was now €1.50 for a student,” he recalled.
“He started shouting and abusing me, he told me to f**k off, that I was a racist. He was very aggressive, and I felt threatened. I asked him to calm down… he slammed the 20c into the chute.”
Mr Kenny, who worked as a taxi driver in Dublin for 13 years, said that this was unfortunately a common occurrence now in his role as a bus driver in Galway.
In the interests of the passengers who were upset, he decided to let the defendant remain on the bus. When he got back to the bus depot, though, he reported the matter to his boss
He was told not to let the defendant on the bus again, and to report any further incidents to Gardaí immediately.
Four days later, the same driver was operating the 411 service from the Cappagh Road to Eyre Square. A large group of passengers were waiting for him at the bus stop outside the Clybaun Hotel.
“He was one of them; I’d been told by my boss that he was not allowed on, and to call Gardaí. I told him he could not come on, he got very aggressive, he put his head well in towards me and started shouting ‘hit me… racist bastard.’
“The bus was fairly full, it’s a busy route, I stepped off the bus while waiting for Gardaí. I was very upset, these are ongoing incidents, I am off work sick from another incident.
“It’s not what you want in a work day. I worked 13 years as a taxi driver in Dublin … this was a very frightening experience.”
When Garda Micheál Murphy arrived on the scene at 1.20pm he met both parties. A female passenger came forward to make herself known, but did not wish to make a statement.
“The driver said that the male had been roaring at him; he pushed him away as he was worried for his own safety,” he told the court.
The defendant, a Jordanian national, said that he had been training to be a chef in GMIT at the time, and had often caught the bus, but only ever paid €1.30.
“I’d have paid more if I’d known,” he said.
“He (the driver) started shouting and screaming at me. He was very rude.”
He took offence that the driver had said something along the lines of “hey, hey, hey, come back” to him.
Before the prosecution had the opportunity to question the witness, Judge Fahy short-circuited things by telling the defendant that he had over-reacted. She said that cultural differences may have been to blame, and explained that ‘hey’ was a commonly used word in Ireland to catch someone’s attention.
“I don’t think that the driver meant to insult you, and you totally over-reacted – I don’t accept your evidence,” she told him.
She further said that the injured party, who had had years of experience dealing with the public as a taxi driver in Dublin, would not have called the Gardaí for no good reason.
She convicted the defendant, imposing a €250 fine for the first incident, along with €50 in witness expenses. The second matter was marked proven.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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