|
|
Justice Minister Mr Jim O’Callaghan must surely deserve full support for refusing to abandon the Government’s new criminal legal aid payment system, simply because it has encountered organised opposition.
This reform replaces the previous payment-per-appearance arrangement with a flat fee of €520 for representing one accused person from the beginning to the conclusion of a District Court case. Under the former model, solicitors received €239.38 for an initial appearance and €59.86 for each subsequent hearing.
The minister’s central argument is reasonable; a public payment system should not financially reward cases for remaining before the courts longer than necessary. That does not mean solicitors deliberately seek adjournments. Court delays arise for many legitimate reasons, including difficulties with evidence, prosecution readiness and overcrowded lists. Nevertheless, the State is entitled to remove a fee structure that links additional payments directly to additional appearances.
The Department of Justice says the reform is intended to improve efficiency by paying one fee from the beginning to the end of a case. It also forms part of a wider Government commitment to restore and reform criminal legal aid fees.
Mr O’Callaghan has already demonstrated a willingness to compromise. The original proposed fee of €455 was increased to €520 before the new system took effect. This was a substantial movement by the minister and should be recognised by those accusing him of refusing to engage.
Ireland’s former criminal legal aid system, which paid solicitors an initial fee followed by another payment for each subsequent District Court appearance, differed from the more structured approach used in much of Europe. England and Wales generally use standard fees for categories and stages of lower-court work, Scotland combines fixed payments with scheduled and supplementary fees, while Germany regulates lawyers’ remuneration through statutory fee frameworks. Ireland’s new €520 payment for representation from the beginning to the end of a District Court case therefore brings the country closer to the European preference for case-based or fixed remuneration and removes the direct link between State payments and repeated adjournments. However, many European systems also provide supplements or separate assessment for unusually complex or demanding cases, suggesting Ireland should retain the reform while allowing additional payments in genuinely exceptional circumstances.
The concerns raised by solicitors should, of course, be taken seriously. The Law Society argues that a single payment may not adequately reflect cases involving numerous hearings or exceptional complexity. Its survey also indicated that many practitioners feared the model would make criminal legal aid work financially unattractive.
Those concerns justify continued monitoring and carefully targeted adjustments. They do not justify immediately reversing a reform before there has been sufficient time to assess its operation.
Withdrawing from legal aid panels and disrupting court business risks placing defendants, victims and the wider justice system under additional pressure. Public policy cannot be decided by whichever professional group can create the greatest disruption.
Mr O’Callaghan must be seen as therefore correct to keep the regulations in place while reviewing their impact. If unusually long or complicated cases require supplementary payments, sensible exceptions can be introduced.
But the basic principle remains sound; taxpayers should fund fair legal representation, not an outdated payment structure that can increase costs as cases are repeatedly adjourned. The minister is right to pursue greater efficiency and right not to surrender reform in response to political pressure.
Former Circuit Court judge Mr Gerard O’Brien has lost an appeal seeking to overturn his convictions for attempted rape and the sexual assault of six young men while he was working as a secondary-school teacher in Dublin during the 1990s.
Mr O’Brien, aged 61years with an address at The Old School House, Slievenamon Road, Thurles, Co Tipperary, was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury in December 2023 of one count of attempted anal rape and eight counts of sexual assault. He had denied all nine charges.
During Garda interviews, Mr O’Brien initially denied the allegations. He later supplied prepared statements acknowledging sexual activity with two complainants but maintaining that it had been consensual.
He also admitted performing oral sex on another complainant, claiming that he had mistakenly believed the young man was consenting. However, he denied attempting to have anal sex with him.
The offences are understood to have occurred at locations in Dublin between March 1991 and November 1997, when Mr O’Brien was aged between 27 years and 33 years and teaching at CBC Monkstown. Four of the six complainants were students or former students of his. The men were aged between 17 years and 24 years when the offences took place.
Giving evidence at his trial, O’Brien said he initially lied to Gardaí because he felt ashamed and panicked at the possibility of being charged with a sexual offence. He accepted that allowing students to visit his home and share his bed had been inappropriate and should never have happened.
O’Brien’s appeal centred largely on the trial judge’s directions to the jury. His senior counsel, Mr Hugh Hartnett, argued that the instructions were confusing, unfairly weighted against the defence and capable of suggesting that the judge had formed a personal view of the evidence. The Court of Appeal however rejected those arguments.
Delivering the court’s decision, presiding judge Ms Tara Burns said the jury had been repeatedly reminded that all factual decisions, including whether O’Brien was guilty, were exclusively matters for its members.
The appeal court also rejected criticism of the trial judge’s warning that jurors should not enter a “parallel universe of make-belief”, when considering the evidence. Judge Burns said those remarks applied to all witnesses and were not directed solely at Mr O’Brien.
The court found no error in asking jurors to consider Mr O’Brien’s legal knowledge when evaluating his initial false account and his later prepared statements. Ms Justice Burns said his professional background could reasonably have influenced the jury’s assessment of those accounts.
Further grounds concerning the refusal to hold separate trials for the six complainants and the directions given about lies told by a defendant were also dismissed.As none of the grounds of appeal succeeded, the convictions were upheld.
Mr O’Brien resigned from the Circuit Court after his conviction. He had been appointed to the judiciary in 2015 but had been on leave after the allegations emerged.
On May 31st, 2024, Mr Justice Alexander Owens had imposed a sentence of five years and nine months, suspending the final 21 months. O’Brien therefore received an effective four-year prison term.
The sentencing judge said Mr O’Brien had been unsuitable to hold judicial office and criticised what he described as his tendency to blame others for his situation.
A 29-year-old Polish man has been sentenced to six years in prison after admitting responsibility for the manslaughter of his friend, Maciej Nowak, who died following a violent incident at a house in Co Tipperary on St Stephen’s Day in 2023.
Mr Tomasz Rozpeda, who had no fixed address, was sentenced at the Central Criminal Court after previously pleading guilty to manslaughter. He had originally faced a murder charge in connection with Mr Nowak’s death, which occurred on or around 26th or 27th December 2023, at Ballycranna, Kilross, near Tipperary Town.
The court heard that Mr Nowak, aged 32, suffered extensive injuries to his head and neck. A pathologist concluded that he died from blunt force trauma and that the injuries were not consistent with being self-inflicted. Medical evidence also indicated that Mr Nowak’s head had been struck repeatedly, either with an object or against a flat surface.
During the sentencing, Justice Ms Eileen Creedon said the violence involved was significant. The court was told that Mr Nowak sustained 27 separate injuries and bruises to his head and neck, while there were around 70 areas of bruising across his body.
Mr Rozpeda had contacted emergency services in the early hours of 27th December, telling the operator that his friend had “gone crazy” and was hitting things and himself. However, the later medical findings did not support that explanation. When ambulance personnel arrived at the house at approximately 5.02am, Mr Nowak was found lifeless on the kitchen floor.
Evidence before the court showed that the two men, who were friends, had arranged to spend time together over the Christmas period. CCTV placed Mr Rozpeda in the area on the afternoon of St Stephen’s Day, and the pair were later seen at a service station before returning to Mr Nowak’s home.
The court also heard that both men had consumed alcohol and drugs that evening. Although toxicology results showed a high level of amphetamines in Mr Nowak’s system, this was ruled out as the cause of death.
Mr Rozpeda initially denied involvement and gave Gardaí an account that investigators said contained a number of falsehoods. The court heard that he later contacted Mr Nowak’s fiancée and said he had put him in hospital.
In a victim impact statement, Mr Nowak’s fiancée, Ms Joanna Biszof, described the devastating effect of his death on her and her children. The court was told that Mr Nowak had been due to marry her on June 27th 2024.
Ms Justice Creedon set a headline sentence of nine years, taking into account the level of violence and the seriousness of the injuries. However, she reduced the sentence to six years after considering Rozpeda’s guilty plea, his apology, his acceptance of responsibility, and the fact that he had no relevant previous convictions in Ireland.
The sentence was backdated to 28th December 2023, the date Mr Rozpeda first went into custody.
The Central Statistics Office has released its Recorded Crime figures for Quarter 1 2026, covering incidents recorded in January, February and March.
The figures show a rather mixed picture. In the 12 months to Q1 2026, recorded crime incidents fell in 6 of the 15 main offence groups. The largest decreases were seen in Homicide & Related offences, Sexual offences, Burglary & Related offences, and Robbery, Extortion and Hijacking offences.
However, some offence groups continued to rise. The largest increases were recorded for Dangerous or Negligent Acts and Weapons & Explosives offences.
The report also highlights an increase in victims of Assaults & Related offences. Female victims rose by 8% to 2,460 in Q1 2026 compared with Q1 2025, while male victims rose by 1% to 3,334. Overall, victims in this category increased by 4% to 5,794.
The CSO also advises caution when interpreting fraud figures. Current published figures for Fraud, Deception & Related offences include only incidents directly reported to An Garda Síochána by members of the public and recorded on the PULSE system. Certain referrals from financial institutions are still excluded while work continues on reporting and recording systems.
These statistics are important because they show recorded crime incidents, not necessarily the full level of crime in society. Some offences may be under-reported, particularly crimes such as fraud, sexual offences, and assault.
The full CSO release and related data tables are available through the Central Statistics Office website which can be located HERE.
Rise In Assaults On Healthcare Workers Raises Urgent Safety Questions.
New figures show that 2,373 assaults against healthcare workers have already been recorded this year, including 23 sexual assaults.
The data, provided by the HSE, confirms that up to June 4th there were:
► 1,765 direct physical assaults.
► 585 verbal assaults.
► 23 sexual assaults.
► 103 incidents classified as “moderate”.
Thankfully, no incident so far this year has been classified as “major”, but that should not hide the seriousness of what frontline staff are facing every day.
A “moderate” incident can mean a significant injury requiring medical treatment, counselling, a report to the Health and Safety Authority, more than three days off work, or a hospital stay of several days.
Healthcare workers should not have to accept violence, intimidation or sexual assault as part of their job.
One question that now needs to be examined more openly is whether alcohol and illegal drug use are contributing to some of these incidents. The current figures do not break down how many assaults involved intoxication, but the HSE’s own safety guidance recognises that people under the influence of alcohol or drugs can create sudden risks for staff.
If substance misuse is part of the problem, it must be part of the solution too, alongside safer staffing levels, proper security, better reporting, staff supports, and a zero-tolerance approach to violence in healthcare settings.
Our healthcare workers care for us in our most vulnerable moments. They deserve to be protected in theirs.
|
Support Us Help keep Thurles.info online by donating below. Thank you.
Total Donated 2026: €300.00
Thank You!
Daily Thurles Mass Livestream
|
Recent Comments