CITY TRIBUNE
Judge warns ‘educated and privileged’ face prison for drug dealing
A District Court judge has expressed concern over the growing number of third level students appearing before her court in recent weeks for drug dealing offences and she has issued a warning they can no longer expect to remain conviction-free, just because they are students.
“What is going on at the moment with students being charged with Section 15s (drug dealing offences)?
“Don’t they know they are going to ruin their lives? The court cannot stand back and allow students – and I’m sure their parents know this – to continue like this.
“There cannot be ‘carte blanche’ for students to act in this manner. They are educated and privileged. They are the people getting the opportunities and there will be no more opportunities for them to remain conviction-free,” she warned.
Judge Fahy said the students who had appeared before the court last week and again this week, had not just been found in possession of small amounts of drugs but had been found with significant amounts that were for sale or supply to others.
“What is going on in this courtroom is just coming to a head now and it is totally unacceptable,” she warned this week.
Last week, Judge Fahy dealt with three NUIG students who had been charged with dealing drugs. One of them got a six-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to having over €4,000 worth of cannabis for sale or supply in 2016. He was also caught with €2,000 cash – the proceeds of his drug dealing business, which he admitted to Gardai was set up to fund his college lifestyle.
A chemistry student was caught with ecstasy, the veterinary drug Ketamine, cannabis and €575 cash.
Judge Fahy said he reminded her of the TV drugs series, Breaking Bad.
The third student to be dealt with last week was Jack McDonnell (23), with an address in Dun na Coiribe, who is a corporate law graduate and currently studying for his LLB. The court heard he had signed for a package containing €1,936 worth of cannabis on May 16, 2016, knowing it contained the drug.
Customs officials alerted Gardai in Galway that a package containing cannabis had come through the postal system and both Gardai and Customs carried out a controlled delivery of the drugs to McDonnell’s address.
Gardai returned to the address moments later and found the drugs in McDonnell’s bedroom.
He pleaded guilty to having cannabis for sale or supply and to having the drug in his possession on the date in question.
His solicitor, Sean Acton, said another person had bought the drugs online and had asked his client to sign for the package.
Judge Fahy adjourned his case to last week’s court for him to provide proof of his current college status. The necessary proofs were handed into court last week.
Hearing McDonnell was averaging 67% in his exams, Judge Fahy adjourned finalisation of sentence to November and asked for a Garda behaviour report on him for that date.
Another student joined the ranks at last week’s court.
GMIT quantity surveyor student, Cian Gilvarry (20) pleaded guilty to two charges of having quantities of Ecstasy in his possession at Carbon night-club on October 28, 2016.
Security staff alerted Gardai when they discovered Gilvarry had five ecstasy tablets on him in the club that night.
He was arrested and taken back to the Garda station where a thorough search of his person revealed eight ‘deal’ bags containing a further €450 worth of the drug. Gardai carried out a follow-up search of his address at the time and found a number of other people at the property with drugs. One of them was subsequently charged and will be appearing before the court in May.
Defence solicitor, John Martin said his client had moved in with people he didn’t know and got involved in their drugs lifestyle until he was detected.
He said his client had a promising future and was no longer involved in drugs.
Judge Fahy sentenced Gilvarry to five months in prison on the second charge and imposed a concurrent one-month sentence for the first. She suspended both sentences for 12 months. Leave to appeal was granted.
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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