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Ireland introduces Free Legal Aid for everybody! – …as it seems

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Ireland introduces Free Legal Aid for everybody! – …as it seems

Some big news: Free Health services for everyone is something the government promised for years, but it didn’t happen. Instead – in a total surprise move – free legal aid for everyone was introduced in April. …we just weren’t told about it yet!

“Free Legal aid” means that the state covers the cost for solicitor/barrister and all other legal cost and this route is available to people with limited financial means to ensure that not only wealthy people can get justice, but that also poor people can defend themselves when they are accused of something.

It is a very fair concept and I don’t think that anybody could have an issue with the concept of it.

The question about “Who can get it?”, however, can be a more controversial one, but it seems that this problem has been removed now because it emerged that a member of the Irish Parliament, who is on a salary of approximately EUR 90,000 per year PLUS significant expenses can get free legal aid and if he can get it, then the majority of people in Ireland (who earn a lot less than him) MUST also be eligible for it. Right?

Anti Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy is accused of falsely imprisoning Tanaiste Joan Burton during a water charges protest in November 2014 and he has applied for free legal aid on the grounds that he can’t afford the court costs. Judge Melanie Greally from the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has decided that based on his average weekly income, he will get free legal aid! :-O

How can that be the case for someone who has a monthly salary of EUR 4000? Well, Murphy has an agreement with his party that he only gets EUR 1,800 (after tax) per month and that the party can keep the rest.

So the money that arrives in his bank account is genuinely quite low, BUT this is a voluntary arrangement that he has with his party and herein lies the problem!

Imagine if you had a voluntary arrangement with your parents or spouse or a friend to give them more than half of your monthly salary (assuming you were lucky enough to earn 4k), do you you think a judge would also have sympathy with you? I don’t think so!

And even more so in this case, it means that you and I will pay for Paul Murphy’s legal aid (because taxes will pay for it) and his party can continue pocketing his salary, so we are indirectly funding his party! Doesn’t sound right!! We are talking about approximately EUR 50,000!

The Journal.ie reported about this here: www.thejournal.ie/paul-murphy-legal-aid-2740512-Apr2016/

The case he has to defend himself in is somewhat irrelevant in this situation, but if we looked at what he is accused of then it becomes even more questionable if he should receive a cent of tax payers money and it even makes you wonder if he is fit to be a TD: Tanaiste Joan Burton came from an event in a school in Tallaght and was on her way to a church for the rest of the event, when a protest against water charges blocked her car in and “imprisoned” her in her car for about 2 hours.

Protesting is a legal right, but stopping someone’s movements against their will is not. It was a stupid and unjustified action. No serious harm was done to anyone and you could argue that bringing him to court is a bit of an overreaction, but unfortunately there are no other means to penalise someone who misbehaves.

The real bad news is that free legal aid has NOT been introduced for everyone, instead only someone who could afford to pay from his own pocket and who knowingly broke the law, will get the money paid by you and me!

Elections, Justice, Politics, Taxes, ,

Just ruin it for everybody! – Nonsensical Compensation Case

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Just ruin it for everybody! – Nonsensical Compensation Case

Ireland has a serious compensation problem and NOTHING is done about it. But hopefully shocking cases like this one will EVENTUALLY get a government to fix this stupid situation. But what happened?

A 59-year old woman (Teresa Wall from Swords) went for a hill walk on the Wicklow Way in August 2013. Because she wasn’t careful enough, she tripped and fell on her knee. It seemingly was a bad fall that required a few stitches, but nothing was broken and no long-term pain or damage has been reported. Similar situations have happened MANY times before and if you go hillwalking or mountain climbing or do any other rough-ish outdoor sport/exercise, you should know that you can get injured.

The Irish Independent reported here.

In this case, the woman was walking on a “board walk” that is made up of old railway sleepers. The board walk is there to protect the flora and fauna on the mountain, but also to help walkers get over boggy/marshy/wet stretches. The railway sleepers are made of wood and they suffer from the wet and wind and were “badly rotted”. Well, what would normal people do? Be EXTRA careful in the same way as you would be extra careful on bad ground. And if they fall? They get up again and sort out the damage, but they are NOT running to the courts!

Teresa Wall wanted money! She sued the National Parks and Wildlife Service and unfortunately she wasn’t told to get lost, but instead judge Jacqueline Linnane outrageously awarded her EUR 40,000….for a few stitches on the knee! Unbelievable!

The woman claimed that she walked “all around the world” for 40 years, that she ran half-marathons on a weekly basis and that she had climbed in the Himalayas to the base camp on Mount Everest. She also claimed that the injury meant that she now could no longer hill climb or run marathons.

What do you think mountain climbers get who get injured or even killed on Mount Everest? Do they sue Nepal? Or maybe the creator of the mountain? They sure won’t! And if something bad had happened on her climb in the Himalayas she wouldn’t have received a cent.

And what is the ridiculous amount of 40k for that judge Linnane so generously gave away of not-her-own-money?

Now, accidents and compensations happen all the time, but why is this one such a significant case? See, the result of it is that anybody else who gets a little scratch on a walk in the Wicklow Mountains or any other outdoor activity area in Ireland on private or public ground will be able to sue for the most ridiculous reasons. And for that reason we will see more “DO NOT ENTER” signs and wonderful walks like the Wicklow Way might be closed for the public.

The negative follow-on effect thanks to Teresa Wall and Jacqueline Linnane’s actions is not yet comprehensible, but will most likely be HUGE!!

This has to be changed! Crazy claims like this should be thrown out of court and even where compensation is paid, it should be based on a predetermined compensation “price list” as it is done already in many other countries to take this total randomness our of judges decisions.

An example for leg-related injuries from the German claims table is here. If you translate it with Google Translate or something similar or if you are able to read German, you will be able to see that the money paid for a light injury (dog bite with car to thigh fracture) is EUR 450-5900. For a middle severity injury which results in a severe disability and reduction in earning capability of 60% (That’s quite serious!!) is up to EUR 65,000, but that is FAR FAR worse than what happened on Wicklow Way.

Justice, Odd, Society, , , ,

College Green Plans – Consultation

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
College Green Plans – Consultation

The plans for College Green have been revealed. The intention is to pedestrianise the whole College Green area from Starbucks in Dame Street to the Westin Hotel in Westmoreland Street and up to Grafton Street. Suffolk Street is also becoming a car free zone. This is a HUGE area in the middle of the city and that has some pros and some cons.

The plus sides are that for the first time, Dublin will get a major civic space in the middle of the city centre and I really hope that that will be the new site for a completely new Christmas Market for Dublin and will also give opportunity to have other markets and events in that area.

But there are downsides for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. The downside for motorists is clear, but the new issues for pedestrians and cyclists might need a bit more of an explanation. Usually cyclists are banned from pedestrianised areas and while there are short cycling lanes reaching into the main pedestrianised area, it most likely will still mean that you have to get off your bike and push it for some distance before you are allowed to continue your trip and since this is one of the main North-South routes, that doesn’t seem to be a good options. Complete cycling paths that allow to traverse the entire pedestrianised zone should be provided.

For pedestrians such cycling paths are a problem because it de-pedestrianises the zone BUT much worse is that busses, the LUAS and possibly even Taxis (completely unacceptable!) are still allowed to drive throughout the so-called “pedestrianised” zone. Either all or nothing is my opinion and wile we can’t divert the LUAS, busses and definitely taxis should NOT be allowed to drive through in my opinion.

Can you imagine the line of hundreds of taxis that will try to drive through that area in the hope to pick up passengers? And they are prepared to stop at any point at any time, ignorant to busses and the LUAS trying to get through.

If you have different opinions or even share my opinions, you are asked to submit your view on the proposed solution.

You have until 24 May and all details are here: www.dublincity.ie/college-green

Dublin, Dublin City Council, Traffic

Easter Rising Commemorations – the oddest one!?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Easter Rising Commemorations – the oddest one!?

The real anniversary of the Easter Rising is on Sun 24 April and the celebrations/commemorations on Easter Monday (28 March) were very much premature.

One thing that surprised me (positively) was that Sinn Fein didn’t feature at all. The commemorations should not be and were not claimed by any political party, but it was an event for the people. At the beginning of the year it looked as if Sinn Fein would try to give themselves a big pat on the shoulder for what “they” had achieved in 1916, but despite the current Major being from Sinn Fein, the party kept a very low profile. Good!

With the REAL anniversary happening nearly a month after the big event, the question was how this “second” anniversary would be celebrated and the answer seems to be: NOT!! A little odd, that there is not at least some small scale official event, but we will get over it.

With surprise though, I found out that on Sunday 24 April a quite odd commemoration will take place: Dublin City Council and Athletics Ireland are hosting a “Dublin Remembers 1915 Run”. I am not even sure why I find this so odd, but reading through the promotional text on Dublin City’s website it just sounds strange when you read:

“With the centenary celebrations of 1916 in full swing, this is an excellent opportunity to put your running shoes on in remembrance.”

And the text continues explaining that the run will pass by “iconic sites … exactly 100 years ago to the day of the Easter Rising.” (Let’s not dwell on the incorrect sentence with the word “ago” not fitting in there at all.) Running a 5km run and passing by the locations where people shot each other 100 years ago does seem to me to be one of the oddest ways to commemorate.

Is any harm done by this “Dublin Remembers 1916 Run”? Not at all! …and I still find it a rather strange way to commemorate a rebellion 100 years ago.

[If you want to participate in this run, you have to register before 20 April and it will cost you EUR 11: www.athleticsireland.ie/news/dublin-remembers-1916-5k/

1916, Dublin, Events, Odd,

Arrive early to avoid disappointment?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Arrive early to avoid disappointment?

Every week, I am checking about 400 events to find the 180-220 free events that then make it into the Dublin Event Guide (for Free Events). Where an organiser sells tickets, they know how many tickets they can sell and they stop when the event is sold out.

For organisers of free events, things are a lot more tricky! You have NO idea how many people will come to your event. It could result in an empty room or you could have so many people that you have to send some away. Neither of the two scenarios is ideal, BUT most event organisers understandably rather have a full room than an empty room. When they expect or hope for a busy/full event, they often write “No booking required, however places are limited, so arrive early to avoid disappointment.” or “Places are limited and early arrival is strongly recommended.” or something similar.

Sure we get that if you are there before everyone else, you will get a seat while late comers might be sent away, but if you suggest to EVERYONE to come early, would that not just create the exactly same situation as if everyone came on time or came late?

So in my opinion it is a silly and nonsensical statement. Yes, it should be stated that places are limited because then you know that you might be sent away if the venue is full, but the “come early to avoid disappointment” is totally unnecessary. By the way, you will have never read this unnecessary statement in the Dublin Event Guide (for Free Events). ;-) I apply a nonsense filter before I include any information. :-P

Dublin, Events, Odd, Society
 
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