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Cahir Gardaí are appealing for witnesses to a serious collision between a motor vehicle and a horse, which has left a teenage driver in a critical condition in hospital.
Gardaí attended the scene of the collision, which occurred at approximately 11.55pm last night on the M8 at Cahir Abbey Upper, Cahir, Co Tipperary, between Junctions 11 (Cahir South) and Junction 10 (Cahir North).
We understand that a loose horse wandered out onto the motorway into the path of an oncoming motor vehicle.
According to Gardaí the male driver, who was in his late teens, sustained serious injuries and was removed to Cork University Hospital, where he remains in a critical condition.
Last night and this morning diversions were in place as forensic collision investigators conducted an examination of the collision scene.
Today, Gardaí are appealing to any person or road user who were travelling in the area with cameras (including vehicles with dash camera footage), to make same available to Cahir Gardaí.
Persons with information can contact Cahir Garda station at Tel. No.: 052 7445630, the Garda Confidential Line on Tel. No.: 1800 666 111 or indeed any Garda station.
The Minister for Justice, Mrs Helen McEntee TD, has yesterday welcomed the opening of the 2022 campaign for the position of Recruit Prison Officer in the Irish Prison Service.
Minister McEntee is urging people, especially those in minority and new Irish communities, to consider the Irish Prison Service as a career.
The competition is being run by the Public Appointments Service on behalf of the Irish Prison Service. The Irish Prison Service intends to recruit up to 144 Recruit Prison Officers in 2022 with an additional 200 in 2023.
Minister for Justice, Mrs Helen McEntee said, “I am delighted that the 2022 Recruit Prison Officer competition has now opened, allowing people the opportunity to join this front-line service. Being a Prison Officer is a very challenging and rewarding role. Prisoners will look to you, as the most accessible people they have in their lives, as figures of authority and also as people to learn from. You will have the opportunity to help prisoners see their time in custody as an opportunity to change their lives for the better and as a fresh beginning. As a Prison Officer you will be best placed to provide corrective experiences and demonstrate a good way of behaving”.
The last recruitment competition was held in early 2019 and classes have continued right throughout the pandemic. The 2022 Recruit Prison Officer Competition is open until Thursday 4th August 2022 at 3:00pm.
Ms Caron McCaffrey, Director General of the Irish Prison Service added, “The 2022 Recruit Prison Officer competition is very much welcomed and demonstrates our commitment to expanding our workforce. The role of Prison Officers can be both challenging and rewarding and our training will provide applicants with a greater understanding of the complex role a prison officer will face, which combines the provision of safe and secure custody, with care and rehabilitation of our prisoners”.
Information on the competition can be found by visiting the Public Appointments Service website HERE.
The Minister for Justice, Mrs Helen McEntee TD, has today announced that she is amending her approach to the forthcoming Incitement to Hatred and Hate Crime Bill – the Hate Speech and Hate Crime Bill – to make it easier to secure prosecutions and convictions for crimes motivated by hatred.
The new law will legislate for hate crimes by creating new, aggravated forms of certain existing criminal offences, where those offences are motivated by prejudice against a protected characteristic. It will also update the previous 1989 legislation on hate speech to reflect the current context more accurately; including online hateful content.
Minister McEntee will now include a ‘demonstration test’ in the investigation of hate crimes which will be an additional/alternative test to the ‘motivation test’ as previously outlined in the General Scheme of the Bill, which was published in 2021.
The changes reflect Minister McEntee’s determination that the law is effective and victim-centred – and will result in prosecutions where serious crimes are committed. This was echoed by the Joint Committee on Justice during pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill, and by key stakeholders that the Minister has consulted with.
Minister McEntee said: “This is a hugely important piece of legislation which will tell victims of hate crimes that we are determined to help them, and will also let perpetrators know that they will be punished for spreading hate, prejudice and division.
I know how much it means to many groups that we get this legislation right – that it is an effective law which An Garda Síochána will be able to prosecute, and which will allow convictions be secured in the courts.
That is why we must make sure that the Bill is victim centred and effective, and that is why I am making these changes. We must get this Bill right, and it is my intention to publish the full Bill in early September and enact it by the end of the year”.
A motivation test for hate crime requires proof of someone’s subjective motivation for committing an offence – what was in their mind at that exact moment. However, the Minister has now concluded that motivation alone in proving hate crime offences can be difficult to establish and therefore might not result in a conviction.
A demonstration test means simply that a perpetrator demonstrates hatred towards a member of a protected group/characteristic at the time of an offence being committed.
This might involve, for example, the use of hostile or prejudiced slurs, gestures, other symbols or graffiti at the time of offending. In practice, it means that by using a demonstration test, the prosecution does not necessarily have to get inside the mind of a perpetrator to prove the crime but can use a demonstration test as an alternative method of proving a crime committed is a hate crime within the provisions of the legislation.
In addition, the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Crime) Bill 2022 – the full title for the Hate Crime Bill – will repeal and replace the hate speech provisions in the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989.
The Bill will strengthen the law around incitement to hatred by proposing clearer and simpler offences of incitement to hatred than those in the existing legislation.
These new offences will cover inciting hatred against a person or persons because they are associated with a protected characteristic, and also disseminating or distributing material inciting hatred.
The new legislation will set the threshold for criminal incitement to hatred as intent or recklessness. This means a person must either have deliberately set out to incite hatred, or at the very least have considered whether what they were doing would incite hatred, concluded that it was significantly likely, and decided to press ahead anyway.
The legislation will contain robust safeguards for freedom of expression, such as protections for reasonable and genuine contributions to literary, artistic, political, scientific or academic discourse, and fair and accurate reporting.
A Tipperary resident who suffered a brain injury, latter having been knocked to the ground by a soapbox kart; following a downhill race in Roscrea, North Co. Tipperary, has settled a High Court action for €1.55m.
Mr Donal Walsh, aged 64 years, a retired army private, who had been acting as a ‘Steward’ at the Roscrea Soapbox Race, in Roscrea almost six years ago, was then walking back up the hill, where the racing had been taking place when a kart, knocked him to the ground.
Mr Walsh had sued the organisers of the Soapbox Race, Mr Shane Lee and Mr Eoghan Fogarty, latter with addresses in Roscrea, Co Tipperary, and Country Sports Ireland, with an address at Kilrea, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, as a result of the accident at the Soap Box Race in Roscrea which had taken place on September 11th, 2016.
Mr Patrick Treacy SC, instructed by Cian O’Carroll Solicitors, informed the High Court that the racing had finished, when it was decided to have one further run.
Mr Walsh had seen two karts pass him on Convent Hill, Roscrea, but a wheel had come off one of the karts, latter which then crashed in to him, knocking him forcefully to the ground; same collision resulting in him receiving a strong blow to his skull.
Mr Walsh lost consciousness and was immediately transferred to hospital, where it was discovered, he had suffered a brain injury.
Mr Justice Michael Hanna, approving the settlement, wished Mr Walsh and his family well.
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has today published the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) 2021 Annual Report.
The 2021 report marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of CAB and the positive figures included in the report highlight the success of the Bureau in tackling organised crime to date.
Between 1996 and 2021, a total of €204 million has been returned to the exchequer, comprising €165 million in tax settlements, €33 million in proceeds of crime and €6 million in Social Welfare recoupments. Over 360 Proceeds of Crime cases have been brought to the Courts, involving almost €170 million in assets.
The 2021 report shows that in the year 2021 CAB returned in excess of €5.5 million to the Exchequer, which comprised of €4.4 million in Revenue Settlements, €1.14 million in Proceeds of Crime and €0.364 million in Social Welfare recoveries.
On publishing the report, Minister McEntee said: “CAB has been a vital tool in our arsenal in the fight against organised crime. CAB hits criminals where it hurts – in their pockets – by targeting the ill-gotten gains of criminal conduct.
In 2021, the 25th anniversary of the Bureau, over €5.5 million was returned to the exchequer. I am also pleased to note the recovery and return in one notable instance of €5.4 million to six defrauded injured parties.
Earlier this year I launched the Community Safety Innovation Fund Scheme which will reinvest proceeds of crime seized by CAB back into the communities that need it.
We are also looking at how best to support CAB in its important work – last year my department completed a review which presented a number of recommendations.
One which I am intending to pursue as a priority is reducing the timeframe for the making of a ‘disposal order’.
At the moment, once the High Court has determined that an asset is a ‘proceed of crime’, it can take a further seven years before it may be ultimately confiscated.
My intention is to substantially reduce the statutory timeframe before a ‘Disposal Order’ can be made. Reducing this period would mean that those who generate criminal assets cannot benefit from them for extended periods.
This would send a message to those involved in organised criminality that they will not be allowed to enjoy the profits of their illegal activity, and it will show communities that we take organised crime extremely seriously.
I also want to give CAB the power to publish the names and specified details of tax defaulters who have made settlements with the Bureau.
Subject to the advice of the Attorney General I hope to be in a position to finalise a General Scheme for new legislation to progress these proposals and others by the end of the year.”
The Criminal Asset Bureau Annual Report 2021 can be accessed in full HERE.
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