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The ‘Silent Spring’ Heritage Bill
Poem “Death of a Naturalist”.
[Extract courtesy of former Nobel laureate and the late great poet Mr Seamus Heaney]
“Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles
Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.
There were dragonflies, spotted butterflies,
But best of all was the warm thick slobber
Of frog-spawn that grew like clotted water
In the shade of the banks”.
Definition of a Politician: One who shakes your hand before an election and your confidence afterwards.
 Fine Gael Party Vote Catcher Josepha Madigan, at the opening, this month, of the new Cultural and Heritage Centre at the Bank of Ireland, College Green, Dublin. A dark day for Irish biodiversity
The new ‘Silent Spring’ Heritage Bill; now passed into law and which allows for the burning of vegetation in March and hedge-cutting in August under a pilot project, will now encompass the entire country; with July 5th 2018 surely one of the most despondent of days for Mother Nature.
Sole Fine Gael T.D. and Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan together with her predecessor “Burn the Heather” Humphreys, had cited road safety concerns as the reason behind this Bill. This need to fix the unbroken, however, was more akin to an F.G election gimmick and a hoped-for increased farming vote, rather than the remedying of any slight contradiction existing between the Road Traffic Act and the Wildlife Act.
Name me one road traffic incident, in the last five years, which involved an overgrown hedge and what has the burning of heather (not Humphreys) and gorse to do with health and safety?
Needless to say, Fianna Fáil were not going to lose out on any attempt to sway farming voters either and to their shame, supported this unnecessary Bill.
Sinn Féin opposed the Bill and Co. Kerry party member Martin Ferris associated the declining bird populations to excessive burning. However, local Sinn Féin Templemore/ Thurles Municipal District councillor Mr David Doran has gone against the views of his party, on local TippFM radio, demanding a pro-active approach by Tipperary County Council in the cutting of hedges out of season in Co. Tipperary.
Let’s be honest, what would Josepha and her sweaty constituency of Dublin/Rathdown, actually know or understand, when it comes to the burning of heather and gorse and the cutting back of rural hedge-rows. Some 32,500 Irish people had signed a petition opposing this Bill, while conservationists, environmental groups, wildlife non-governmental organisations, and smart farmers supporting biodiversity, claimed this Bill was not based on any scientific basis whatsoever.
“When gorse is out of blossom, kissing’s out of fashion”.
Rural people should ask the question, “Have I heard the cry of the Curlew in recent years?” “No”, I hear you say! Well currently, there are only some 125 pairs of breeding Curlew’s left in Rural Ireland (None I hasten to add in Dublin / Rathdown) and there is now a real risk that Josepha’s Heritage Bill will sound the death knell for not just Curlews, but for many other species of wildlife, including our already depleted bee population, which hugely depend from February to May on Gorse yellow pea-flowers as their early food source. Currently one third of Ireland’s 98 wild bee species are under threat of extinction.
The Bill will also result in severe consequences for late-nesting birds, such as the endangered Yellowhammer, latter Red-listed (Latter being the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species here in Ireland.), due to a decline in the breeding range and population, (Incidentally have you seen one in Co. Tipperary recently?).
Interesting to note that in England the penalties that can be imposed for criminal offences in respect of a single endangered bird, a nest or an egg, under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, deservedly levies an unlimited fine, or up to six months imprisonment or both.
One wonders if Josepha, while taking on the role of priest and leading the prayers in the Church of St Therese in Mount Merrion, Dublin recently, did she recite the Apostles Creed, you know the line; “Maker of Heaven and Earth,” or perhaps come across the Dublin born Mrs Cecil F. Alexander’s hymn, “All things bright and beautiful”?
All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all.
Each little flower that opens, Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colours, He made their tiny wings.
We agree with you Josepha, No Votes for Fine Gael here.
Just when we are about to acknowledge, both at home and globally, that our natural world is on its bare knees environmentally, this Fine Gael government, (whom thank God, we have successfully rid ourselves totally here in Co. Tipperary), has decided to weaken the very basic of conservation rules; despite the knowledge that we are incapable and incompetent in attempts to enforce current basic environmental laws, already existing.
Josepha’s legal motto, carried on her twitter account page states the Latin phrase; “Per tenebras lucem quaero”. [ Translation, “Through the darkness (or from darkness), I seek the light”]. Perhaps in Josepha’s case the legal phrase; “Qui male agit, odit lucem” might be considered more appropriate. [ Latter translated, “The one who commits evil shuns the light”.]
“If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.” [From a quote attributed to Plato (Greek philosopher).]
First See Link (A) http://www.thurles.info/2018/07/02/polution-of-river-suir-continues/
Secondly See Link (B) http://www.thurles.info/2018/07/09/st-patricks-cemetery-gates-reflect-an-image-of-thurles/
“A Question Of Fitness To Practise”
The entrance into any town in Ireland will quickly relay to the average visitor, information not just on the towns prosperity, but more importantly will indicate that this locality is a great place to live; a place to find work, with quality educational facilities; a place to visit and holiday in safety. All of these signals observed will automatically relay to any visitor the existence of a thriving commercial and business centre.
 Current signs displayed on entrance roads leading into Thurles, Co. Tipperary. Spot the 10 year old neglect. So, let us examine 4 signs currently on view today to visitors entering Thurles, Co. Tipperary, on July 10th 2018.
Picture (1): Welcome To Thurles – Home of Erin Foods
This “Welcome To Thurles – Home of Erin Foods” sign still greets all Tipperary TD’s; Co. Council Elected Representatives and Tipperary Co Council Management as they enter our town.
The Thurles Erin Foods factory closed over 10 years ago, back in June 2008, after 46 years in production; with the loss of 140 jobs. It would have closed earlier were it not for an existing contract that Erin Foods held with the company ‘Batchelors‘ to supply goods and stock for some eight months after the initial purchase. The range of products that was then manufactured in Thurles are, now for the most part I understand, manufactured in British.
No replacement industry was ever found or put in place here in Thurles.
Picture (2): www.thurles.ie
This current sign which remains on view for the website ‘www.thurles.ie’ tells a further tale of the neglect of the town. Someone in the Templemore/Thurles Municipal District or in Tipperary Co. Council, forgot to pay the annual €9 charge for the host name ‘Thurles.ie’. Same financial reminder would have been sent to the responsible body at least one month in advance and for several weeks after the failure to make payment.
On the March 21st 2017 the unpaid host name was again offered for sale and purchased by a Swedish casino site, Mardukas Technologies Limited, latter who then cybersquatted on the host name informing Thurles visitors that they would “Vi guidar dig till de bästa casinobonusarna” which translated means, “We will guide you to the best casino bonuses.”
Tipperary Co. Council have now regained control of the host name, since the 8th August 2017, but almost one year on in 2018, nothing has been done to put same back on line. We are not aware of how much of tax payer’s money, was wasted in any repurchase arrangements with Mardukas Technologies Limited. We are aware however that the site, together with the build and administration, originally exceeded well over €10,000.
Picture (3): Disc Parking In Operation – (“Buy discs where you see the sign P”)
Today this sign also greets visitors, however if you go looking for to buy Parking Discs where you see the sign P, expect to find details of a hefty fine stuffed behind your front windscreen wiper, when you return.
Disk Parking was introduced here in Thurles some 10 years ago. Certainly, Disc parking was in vogue in 2009, while pay-and-display parking was later introduced possibly in 2010. The Road Traffic Act of 1994: gave local authorities the power to make bye-laws governing the type of paid parking controls to be introduced in their areas. These bye-laws included, disc parking or pay-and-display parking.
Today we operate eParking, a new and improved “Park by Phone” system, introduced across Tipperary including Thurles town. The new car park here in Thurles for example is being funded using tax payer’s money. Same will then be the subject of eParking or Pay-and-Display parking metres, to be imposed on these same tax payers who paid for its very introduction and development. One wonders who will feature in the picture as the blue ribbon is cut?.
Picture (4): North Tipperary Co. Council – “Working with the Community”.
The biggest joke and final insult to Thurles people, however must be the remaining sign shown as Picture No.4 above.
The website shown here on this sign is www.north tipperary.ie to which Google asks “Did you mean: http://www.southtipperary.ie”, latter in turn which does not exist either and suggests the Homepage of South Tipperary Dementia Project. No HTTP 301 permanent redirect code was inserted here by Tipperary Co Co Web Designers and Administrators.
Gone also is “AERTEL page 622″, with the new RTE Aertel desktop completely revamped several years ago, and without page 622.
As for a commitment to “Working with the Community”, for God’s sake give us a break. Right from the very top level of management, we need sackings here, to ensure that this situation of sheer neglect is no longer allowed to continue; after all we pay the wages.
 Dublin Circuit Criminal Court “A conscientious tax payer who had put his hand in his own pocket in order to save his company in difficult times” a quote by Mr Justice Martin Nolan, in Court No 9. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today.
The conviction against Independent TD Mr Michael Lowry before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today, related purely to a submission of incorrect accounts filed on behalf of Garuda Ltd, for the year 2006. The accounts were incorrect. They overstated the position in respect of corporation tax owed, by some €45,000 approximately.
This overpayment arose as a result of an earlier error in the 2002 accounts, latter which had resulted in an underpayment of Corporation Tax in a similar amount. The adjustment in the 2006 accounts was solely for the purpose of rectifying this error. The net effect of the adjustment was that there was an underpayment of Corporation Tax to the sum of €5,541.00.
The Revenue Commissioners commenced an investigation into the Mr Lowry’s affairs and that of his company Garuda Limited in 2013. The Revenue Commissioners fully acknowledge that both Lowry and Garuda Ltd co-operated in their investigation.
Revenue also raised an assessment against Lowry in respect of alleged Income Tax due, arising from this underpayment. The assessment sought a sum of €1.1 million from Mr Lowry and his company in respect of the unpaid tax. He appealed this assessment and was successful, with the Income Tax demanded by Revenue being assessed or reduced to NIL / NOTHING TO PAY.
Notwithstanding this finding, the Revenue Commissioners continued to persist in the prosecution of Mr Lowry for submitting an incorrect ncome Tax return. The Judge would later direct the Jury to enter a finding of ‘NOT GUILTY’, to this same charge, halfway through the prosecutions case. In addition to his acquittal on a charge of filing an Incorrect Tax Return in 2002, the DPP also entered a Nolle Prosequi or “Unwillingness to pursue” in a criminal prosecution, in relation to charges of filing incorrect accounts and incorrect information for 2002. The trial Judge went on to observe that the nature of the case against Lowry had changed, following this ruling and that the outstanding charges were far less serious than originally stated.
In imposing a fine only, on Mr Lowry personally and his Limited Company Garuda, Mr Justice Martin Nolan observed that the Revenue Commissioners were not at any financial loss as a result of these matters. He stated that Mr Lowry had no previous convictions, that he was a good employer and clearly a very good Public Representative.
Judge Nolan remarked that Michael Lowry never had the intention to evade tax and that he is “a conscientious tax payer who had put his hand in his own pocket in order to save his company in difficult times”. Judge Nolan made abundantly clear that he did not believe that either a custodial sentence or community service would be appropriate. He fined Mr Lowry €15,000 on an incorrect Corporation Tax Return in 2006, while his company Garuda Ltd was fined €10,000, for not keeping proper books of account.
Following the termination of this case, Mr Michael Lowry stated that he wished to express his thanks to his family, relatives, friends and staff for their continued support. He also said that he wanted to thank in particular, the people of Co. Tipperary for their steadfast loyalty and support over 22 years of turmoil.
 The jury sitting on the trial of Tipperary Independent TD, Mr Michael Lowry and on his refrigeration company Garuda Ltd.; both accused in relation to alleged tax offences, are expected to resume their deliberations on Monday morning next at 10.30am.
As readers will be aware, these charges relate to a commission payment of some €372,000 correctly due from a Finnish refrigeration company, Norpe OY, and made payable to Garuda Ltd in 2002. Same was paid to a third party in the Isle of Man on the verbal direction of Mr Lowry, who was abroad on extended leave, at the time of the transaction.
The Irish State would maintain that same payment was kept off the books in 2002, and that Mr Lowry and the company then attempted to introduce this payment in his 2006 tax returns.
Mr Lowry and Garuda Ltd. have both rigorously denied these charges, pleading not guilty to knowingly delivering incorrect accounts and information in relation to Corporation Tax for the year 2002. They had also rigidly denied making an incorrect Corporation Tax Return in 2007, relating to the business year 2006 and with failing to keep proper audited accounts; allegedly brought about with Mr Lowry’s consent or connivance.
A charge alleging that Mr Lowry himself had submitted an incorrect tax return for 2002 was already dropped by the prosecution on Wednesday last.
Yesterday Mr Justice Martin Nolan, summing up, informed the jury that the issue in this case was “what Mr Lowry actually knew”. He stated that the selected jury members must be fully satisfied, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Mr Lowry was fully aware that this earned commission, had not been included in his company accounts and tax computations.
He said Mr Lowry’s explanation was that he had instructed a staff member to raise an invoice in 2002, and had assumed this had been completed and the money automatically entered onto the company’s books by his firm of accountants.
Judge Nolan also told the trial jurors that they must be fully satisfied, beyond a reasonable doubt that this is not true in order to convict. He said that if they found the explanation was reasonably believable, then they must acquit. He further stated that if the jury believed Mr Lowry did not know about the money appearing in Garuda’s 2006 accounts, they must also acquit on that charge as well.
Judge Nolan articulated that the eleven person jury must also deliver a corresponding verdict for both Mr Lowry and Garuda Ltd. as Mr Lowry was and is “the company”. He said the jury must look at the evidence in a common-sense way, before coming to a decision coldly in the light of facts.
Earlier yesterday, Mr Lowry’s personal Senior Counsel, Mr Michael O’Higgins SC had informed jurors that the case against his client was was “deeply flawed” from the “get-go” and “jaundiced from the outset”. “You can read a lot of stuff telling you about Michael Lowry. The people of Tipperary are almost shamed for returning him, election in and election out,” Michael O’Higgins SC, told the jury. “There is no aura about Michael Lowry. No mystery about him topping the polls; he grafts,” (This referred to evidence from his political secretary, that he works from 8.00am to midnight, throughout his Tipperary constituency).
He further inquired of the jury if they had “ever made a mistake in your life, the kind of mistake that comes under scrutiny” and immediately afterwards there is some “authority figure” investigating you. “You are told your mistake is not just up for grabs, but your motive too and you are told that you are under investigation,” counsel told the jury. Mr O’Higgins said that because of “time pressures”, the charges were “simply laid against” his client, although Mr Lowry was willing to meet with his accusers, the Revenue tax inspectors. This case was taken just a mere 3 weeks before the 10 year elapsed time frame for Lowry’s alleged offence.
“Time Pressures” refers to a past statement [See Section 1078 (7)] of the Taxes Consolidation Act; regarding the then Caymen island scandal by the former Revenue Commissioner chairperson Ms Josephine Feehily. She had then stated that while many cases passed the serious evasion test to be considered for prosecution, the time elapsed, typically in excess of 10 years since the alleged offence had occurred, meant it would not be possible to mount a successful prosecution.
[Section 1078 (7)] of the Taxes Consolidation Act provides that proceedings must be initiated within 10 years from the date of the commission of the offence] Notwithstanding any other enactment, proceedings in respect of an offence under this section may be instituted within 10 years from the date of the commission of the offence or incurring of the penalty, as the case may be.]
Mr O’Higgins asked the jury if they had found it somewhat bizarre that Mr Lowry had never once been interviewed by a tax inspector, despite his home and business premises being raided, on the same hour, by some 21 persons employed by Revenue. Taxes Inspector Ms Shelia Hanley who was involved in the raid and the thorough search of Mr Lowry’s home, had informed the jury that she accepted that only a “small sheaf ” of documents were recovered and same were “not of any evidential value”, meaning that nothing untoward had been located suggesting any criminal activity.
Mr O’Higgins claimed that Revenue inspectors had put their summons out, because of time pressures, without even having a case against Mr Lowry. He said the jury now needed to focus on whether Mr Lowry had the fullest knowledge of what had been accounted for in his company’s books. Here he said was a case where there was an ‘excessive form of zeal’; ‘a form of tunnel vision’, and a case brought about which displayed utter ‘inflexibility’ and was entirely ‘disproportionate with regard to the real facts’.
We will return to report on this case on Monday next, when the jury will again convene to further deliberate.
 Dublin Circuit Criminal Court The remaining eleven person jury in the trial of Tipperary Independent TD Michael Lowry were told by Mr Patrick Treacy SC, defending Garuda Ltd, that an alleged missing invoice had “an innocent explanation” and the missing document could not be misconstrued as part of some “conjuring act” .
The State’s case is that Mr Lowry’s company, Garuda Ltd, received £248,624 (Stg) or €372,000 (Euro) in commission from Norpe OY, a Finish refrigeration company back in August 2002. Allegations have been made that Mr Lowry arranged for this payment to be made to a third party, one Mr Kevin Phelan, latter residing in the Isle of Man, and the paid commission; part of an agency agreement between Norpe OY and Mr Lowry, didn’t appear in the accounts of Garuda Ltd, for that same year 2002.
My personal observances during the previous weeks proceedings, saw a somewhat feeble team of Revenue witnesses, convened by the prosecution, all who had inferred that accounts were falsified in 2007, to mirror that the payment had been only received in 2006.
A Revenue witness for the prosecution, Mr Thomas Keating; the latter a former, now retired Senior Tax Inspector at Thurles Tax Office, gave evidence that a CT1 form received on behalf of Garuda Ltd, for that year (ending 2002), forwarded by his accountants was neither “signed nor dated”. He further confirmed that same should not have been acted upon, due to the fact it bore no signature. Mr Keating further accepted, under pressure, from Mr Patrick Treacy that the ‘fine print’ as such on the declaration form provided, states that the person signing the document agrees that everything included in the form, to the best of the clients knowledge, is correct and complete. In this case there was no signed statement made on that CT1 form and none of the boxes were then deemed as being either correct or complete.
Mr Patrick Treacy had asked Mr Keating if he had heard Mr Farrell’s original opening statement of the previous day e.g. “Cooking the books not once but twice” and “Putting toothpaste back into the tube” ; to which Mr Keating muttered, “I wasn’t in court, but I heard it on the RTE news“. Mr Treacy, defending, continued “Surely, when the CT1 form is not even signed, the lid can’t have been even removed from the toothpaste tube and the books couldn’t have been cooked”.
Continuing to defend Garuda Ltd., Mr Patrick Treacy SC, further reminded the jury that the politician’s private secretary, had given a frank explanation justifying the reason there was no invoice for the €372,000. He stated that Norpe OY had informed her that an invoice had to issue from Mr Kevin Phelan directly, rather than Garuda Ltd and that remained the very simple, innocent explanation for the absence of an invoice. There was “no conjuring act here”, Mr Treacy confirmed, this evidence given was a key moment during the trial.
In a major development on Wednesday last, inside Court No 9, an allegation against Mr Michael Lowry, for having personally filed a false tax return, relating to the years 2002; Mr Justice Martin Nolan had directed the 11 person Jury to find Mr Lowry “Not Guilty”. “When this charge against Mr Lowry was dropped yesterday, the prosecution case went up in a puff of smoke”, Mr Treacy verbalized.
A tax inspector had determined that the €372,000 was an emolument, (a wage or salary), and because of that both Mr Lowry and Garuda Ltd owed income tax, PAYE and PRSI. Both were assessed as owing a total bill of €1.1 million including interest, fines and penalties on the €372,000. This assessment was later successfully challenged before the appeals commission and reduced to nil.
“Such was the engine driving this whole case”, stated Mr Treacy, who continued, advising the jury that Revenue didn’t anticipate that; “The engine ran into a serious problem in terms of staying on track”. Mr Lowry and Garuda Ltd would now fight this assessment “tooth and nail”.
“Yesterday the engine got decoupled from the carriages and the whole engine that drove this whole thing, to bring it into court, is gone. It went because what they thought was their case had evaporated,” stated Mr Treacy, “however the eight carriages remain trundling on”
Referring to the opening speech on the Monday of the previous week where the counsel for the prosecution Mr Remy Farrell SC, had stated that Garuda’s books were “cooked, not once but twice”, council for Garuda stated that “the only cooking being done now was by Revenue. This case relates to the misfiling of an invoice and it is presented to the 11 of you, as a gross fraud on the exchequer,” he continued.
Referring to Mr Farrell’s description that some of the accounting procedures adopted by Garuda Ltd was “an attempt to move the body”, Mr Treacy declared “This isn’t a body case. It is not even a murder case. It is a Revenue case.” He further stated that the charge of making an incorrect return in connection with corporation tax in 2007 was not what the State claimed “the disposal of the dead body”.
Mr Treacy now asked each of the the jury members to consider the symbols of justice when determining the case. “This symbol (Justitia, c 1AD) is of a blindfolded woman who holds a sword in one hand and the scales of justice in the other. This sword represents the power of reason and the ability to cut through and decide on what is truth and what is a falsehood. The scales represents the balance of the individual against the needs of society and a fair balance between interests of one individual and those of another. “She is blindfolded to represent equality, knowing no differences in the parties involved, and it means you are to remain blind to anything that may be prejudicial, or anything that may colour you from adjudicating properly on this case,” Mr Treacy declared.
He went on to described the prosecution case as “madness”, “relentless”, “manic”, and “a joke”. He informed the jury that the law under which his client is charged requires that you can be convicted by Revenue even if the mistake in the return leads to an overpayment of tax. “The only way this now halts is when an external authority states that this has gone too far, and that same authority is the eleven of you”, Mr Treacy suggested.
Finally, Mr Treacy asked the jury members to ask themselves “one fundamental question”, “Is it right that his client should be prosecuted in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court by the Revenue Commissioners in relation to an underpayment of corporation tax of €5,541?”
The trial will continue before Judge Nolan and a jury of three women and eight men on Monday.
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