Law « Thurles Information

Gardaí Seek Witnesses To Collision Involving Car & Walker In Thurles Town.

Thurles Gardaí are seeking witnesses, following a road traffic collision in Thurles, Co. Tipperary on Saturday evening last. Gardaí and emergency services were called to the scene of the collision, which occurred on Friar Street, involving a car and a male pedestrian, just after 7:00pm. Friar Street, west of Liberty Square, in Thurles was immediately cordoned off, for a period of time, to allow for the emergency services to fully respond.

**Friar Street, Thurles, Co. Tipperary at 5:00pm this evening.**
*Pic: G. Willoughby*

The pedestrian was taken immediately to Tipperary University Hospital and is understood, thankfully, to have sustained non-life threatening injuries.

While not necessarily contributing to this collision; Friar Street in Thurles town is regarded by many local residents as being poorly illuminated, once the surrounding local businesses close their places of trading each evening.

Gardaí are particularly interested in making contact with witnesses with who may have dash cam or other video footage, same taken from during or around the time of the collision. Gardaí can be contacted at Thurles Garda station, Tel: 0504 25100.

Body Discovered At Ikerrin Road, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

Gardaí in Thurles, Co. Tipperary are investigating all the circumstances, following the discovery of a body on Friday morning last, November 22nd, 2024.

**Approximate area North of St Mary’s Church, Thurles, where the body was located.**
*Pic. G. Willoughby.*

The body of the man, aged in his 40s, we understand was located at approximately 8:40am in a private dead-end, lane way, off Ikerrin Road (formerly Limekiln Road), close to the junction with Mitchel Street (known formerly as Quarry Street), in Thurles town.

The body of the man was removed from the scene to the mortuary at University Hospital Limerick, where a post-mortem examination has since taken place, the results of which are not being released for operational reasons.

A file will now be prepared for the Coroner’s office.

One Tipperary Site Identified By EPA For Enforcement In Q3 2024.

In total seven sites have been identified as National Priorities for enforcement by the EPA in Q3 2024.

Seven Sites were identified as National Priority Sites in Q3 2024; three were from the Food & Drink Sector, two from the Intensive Agriculture Sector, one from the Waste Sector and one from the Anaerobic Digestion Sector.
The most common issues identified at these sites were non-compliant discharges to water and facility management.
A site’s presence on the National Priority Sites List indicates a poor level of licence compliance.

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published its National Priority Sites list for quarter three, 2024. The National Priority Sites (NPS) System is a system of performance-based indicators to rank industrial and waste licensed sites in order of priority for enforcement. This allows the EPA to target its enforcement effort at the licensed operators with the poorest environmental performance.

Commenting on the publication, Dr. Tom Ryan, Director, EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said: “Our enforcement activities are risk based and we prioritise sites that are not complying with their licence. As noted in the EPA’s recent State of the Environment Report, a disproportionate number of sites on the National Priority Sites list have been from the dairy processing and waste sectors. This trend continued in Quarter 3 2024. The seven sites on the current list will be the subject of targeted enforcement action to ensure that the environmental issues are addressed, and compliance is restored.”

Ms Pamela McDonnell, Programme Manager of the EPA’s Industrial Licence Enforcement Programme said: “Three of the sites on the National Priority Sites List, North Cork Co-Op Creameries Limited, Tipperary Co-operative Creamery Limited, and Aurivo Consumer Foods Limited, are milk processing sites. Each of these has featured on the National Priority Sites List previously. Milk and milk effluent pose a significant risk to local streams and rivers if it is not carefully managed. The dairy sector must prioritise investment in environmental controls to prevent the discharge of polluting material. This remains a priority issue for the EPA”.

Other sites on the National Priority Sites list also pose a risk to water quality.
The waste sites on the list include a non-hazardous waste transfer station and an anaerobic digestion facility. Both sites failed to provide sufficient infrastructure to protect groundwater and surface water.

Similarly, at the two intensive agriculture sites on the list, poor management of waste and storm water increased the risk of contaminated discharges.

The list of National Priority Sites for Q3 2024 is in Table 1 below:

Licensee.	Sector.	Issue.
Tipperary Co-operative Creamery Limited, Co. Tipperary	Food & Drink.	Discharges to water & infrastructure.
A Pig Farmer, Co. Longford	Intensive Agriculture.	Discharges to water.
Aurivo Consumer Foods Limited, Co. Donegal.	Food & Drink.	Discharges to water.
CRM Pigs Limited, Co. Cavan.	Intensive Agriculture.	Discharges to water, waste management & facility management.
North Cork Co-Op Creameries Limited, Co. Cork.	Food & Drink.	Discharges to water & air emissions.
Starrus Eco Holdings Limited, Waterford City.	Non-Hazardous Waste Transfer Stations.	Discharges to water & facility management.
Timoleague Agri Gen Limited, Co. Cork.	Anaerobic Digestion.	Infrastructure & facility management.

Community Policing Unit for North Tipperary/East Clare.

The North Tipperary/East Clare Community Engagement area has a new Community Policing Unit.

Meet the 7 Gardaí from the new Community Policing Unit for North Tipperary/East Clare Community Engagement area.

They will be stationed at Killaloe, Newport, Nenagh, and Roscrea Garda Stations, ensuring a consistent and accessible Garda presence.

Members of the Community Policing Unit will work a structured roster, in line with the Midlands Working Time Agreement 2024, to maximize visibility and engagement opportunities with the public, attending community meetings and maintaining a proactive presence in local schools.

Key objectives for the Community Policing Unit will include addressing crime and anti-social behaviour through problem-solving initiatives developed in partnership with local communities and agencies. Targeted enforcement, as well as focused crime prevention and reduction strategies, will be central to the Unit’s approach, thus supporting a safer and more secure environment for all residents.

Legislation To Reform Family Courts System Passed.

The Family Courts Bill is a key element of the programme of reform to make family justice processes safer, cheaper, more efficient and less adversarial.
Judges to be assigned on a full-time basis to the Family Court divisions.
Best interests of the child will be a primary consideration in the conduct of all family law proceedings.

Today, November 7th, 2024, the Family Courts Bill 2022 passed through both Houses of the Oireachtas. Once enacted, the legislation will provide for the establishment of family court divisions within the existing court structures, a Family High Court, a Family Circuit Court, and a Family District Court.
Judges who have specialist training or experience in dealing with family law matters will be assigned to the Family Courts divisions on a full-time basis.

Key reforms contained in the Bill include:

The establishment of a Family Court as divisions within the existing court structures.
The assigning of judges on a full-time basis to the Family Court divisions – judges who, by reason of their training or experience, are suitable to deal with matters of family law.
The creation of new positions of Principal Judge of the Family High Court, Family Circuit Court, and Family District Court to ensure proper and effective management of these Courts.
A requirement for ongoing professional training in the area of family law for judges.
Allowing for joint applications to be made for judicial separation, divorce, and dissolution of civil partnership, and supporting mediation and alternative dispute resolution in such cases.
The setting out of guiding principles for the conduct of family law proceedings, which are directed at ensuring the best interests of the child are a primary consideration, encouraging mediation – where appropriate – and that as far as possible proceedings are accessible and user friendly.

The Bill also provides for a greater proportion of non-contentious family law matters to be dealt with at Family District Court level, in order to provide local access to the court system and to enable family law issues to be resolved in the simplest and most cost-efficient way, reducing the stress faced by litigants in such cases.

The Family Courts Bill is a key component in the ongoing implementation of the Family Justice Strategy, which is driving reforms to create a more efficient and user-friendly family justice system that puts the family and children at the centre of its work.

This includes:

Ensuring the voice of the child is heard in family law proceedings, in line with a child’s constitutional right, and developing new ways to ensure that this right is upheld. This includes an allocation of €3 million to develop a children’s Court Advocate Pilot Project, and a pilot scheme to fund welfare and voice of the child reports;
Supporting the Judiciary to develop a set of guidelines for the use of welfare reports in family law proceedings;
Reviewing training options across the family justice sector, identifying gaps and opportunities for new provisions;
Improving information provisions for all those accessing the system, including children and young people;
Developing options to provide alternatives to court, including the development of a set of child maintenance guidelines and expansion of the Family Mediation Service through the Legal Aid Board’s private panel of family mediators;
Commissioning research on the operation of the In Camera rule, a draft of which the Minister expects to receive shortly.