CITY TRIBUNE
‘Carrot and stick’ sentence for thief caught red-handed
A solicitor suggested to a judge that his client get the “carrot and stick” treatment so that he would seek rehabilitation for his drug and alcohol addictions on his release from prison rather than go ‘celebrate’ his freedom.
Defence solicitor, Sean Acton, told Judge Mary Fahy at Galway District Court that his client Andrew O’Hagan (27), of 162 Ballinfoyle Park, Headford Road, expected to get custodial sentences for the offences before the court, but he suggested O’Hagan be given a suspended sentence for some of them so that the suspension would act as a “carrot and stick” prompting him to confront his addictions to alcohol and heroin.
The court heard O’Hagan has been battling a chronic alcohol addiction for years and has more recently developed a heroin addiction.
He was caught red-handed by Gardaí on September 18 last year with a mountain bike which had just been stolen from the garage of a house at Palmyra Avenue.
Gardaí found him trying to break into a car at the same premises. He had smashed a window in the car and dented the door, causing €500 worth of damage.
O’Hagan pleaded guilty to handling the bike, knowing it was stolen and to causing criminal damage to the car.
He also pleaded guilty to stealing bottles of vodka on three separate dates last month from various supermarkets around the city and to breaching the peace on one occasion.
He further pleaded guilty to having €50 worth of heroin in his possession when searched at Eyre Square on March 15 last year.
Mr Acton reminded Judge Fahy that when his client was arrested uptown and brought straight away in custody before her court two weeks ago he had been in a very bad state and she had remanded him in custody for his own sake so that he could sober up and get fed in prison.
Judge Fahy agreed O’Hagan had looked dreadful. She recalled he was emaciated and had two black eyes. O’Hagan, who was highly intoxicated at the time, told Judge Fahy he could never eat when he was drinking as food made him sick.
She noted he looked much better this week.
Mr Acton said that while O’Hagan had a heroin addiction now, his chronic addiction to alcohol was more of a problem and when drinking he would take any type of medications he could get his hands on.
“Whatever demon is inside him just takes off. He knows he is facing a custodial sentence and he will use that time to sort himself out,” Mr Acton added.
He said O’Hagan went on a serious binge in February culminating in him being hospitalised from April 27 to May 5. Then, just three days after his release from hospital he was brought in a bad state before the court on May 8 last.
Mr Acton suggested Judge Fahy structure the sentences so that his client got the professional help he needed.
“Without a carrot and a stick, he will celebrate getting out of prison instead of going for treatment,” Mr Acton warned.
Judge Fahy took this on board in her sentencing.
She imposed a four-month sentence on O’Hagan for damaging the car and imposed a concurrent three-month sentence for handling the bike knowing it was stolen.
She imposed a consecutive one-month sentence for the theft of one of the bottles of vodka from one supermarket, and imposed a consecutive, but suspended four-month prison sentence for the theft of another bottle of vodka from another store.
The sentence was suspended for twelve months on condition O’Hagan be of good behaviour during that period; link in with the probation service prior to his release from prison; and continue to co-operate with all directions of the probation service and complete a rehab programme while under supervision during the next 12 months.
The judge fined O’Hagan €200 for having the heroin in his possession in Eyre Square and imposed a consecutive but suspended three-month sentence for breaching the peace.
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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