Dublin v Mayo Mystery of a car that was in two places at the one time
Michael Murphy leaving the court yesterday
A consultant engineer’s BMW car was involved in a rear-ending accident in Dublin at the same time as it was parked outside his Co Mayo home, a court heard yesterday.
Michael Grogan, of Killgillin, Athymass, Ballina, told the Circuit Civil Court the BMW that had driven into the back of Michael Murphy’s Opel on Phibsboro Road, Dublin, on April 27, 2010 could not have been his car.
“Yes,” he told Seamus Breen, counsel for the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland (MIBI), “it was the same car as mine, the same colour with the same registration number but not my car.”
Mr Grogan said his car was at his home from where he operated his business and he was sick that day. His wife, Michelle, was in Dublin that day to keep a hospital appointment with their young son but had travelled by train or had got a lift. He could not remember which.
Michael Murphy (61), of Tulip Court, Darndale, Dublin, told his counsel, Timothy Sheehan, he had been stopped in a line of vehicles at traffic lights on Phibsboro Road when the BMW had driven into the back of him.
His car had been damaged and he had injured his neck which doctors had diagnosed as a sprain. He had spoken to the driver of the BMW and they had moved their cars into a bus lane agreeing to exchange insurance details. He had noted Michael Grogan’s name and address, home phone and mobile phone numbers from a business card attached to the windscreen of the BMW.
Later he had visited a doctor and his solicitor who had sued the Grogans as well as the MIBI.
Retired Ballina garda Denis McCann said he had taken a statement about Mr Grogan’s alleged involvement in the accident and had told him that if he could produce records of his having been in his office at home on the day, such as phone calls or emails, it would be of significant assistance to the inquiry. No such records had been produced.
Circuit Court President Mr Justice Matthew Deery said the details provided by Mr Murphy could only have been noted by him at the time of the accident.
He awarded him €6,500 damages against Mr and Mrs Grogan and dismissed the case against the MIBI. He directed the Grogans pay Mr Murphy’s and the MIBI’s legal costs.
Ireland’s average credit card debt falls by €20 since height of the boom
THE AVERAGE amount owed on Irish credit cards has fallen by just €20 since the height of the boom as consumers struggle to pay off debts run up before the recession took hold.
An Oireachtas committe heard that average bills have remained constant, despite repayments outstripping new spending for more than three years and consumers clearing €400 million from balances since the end of 2008.
The scale of the personal debt crisis confronting hundreds of thousands of Irish people was outlined in a statistical overview of personal non-mortgage debt given to the Oireachtas committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform by the Central Bank’s head of statistics Joe McNeill yesterday.
According to the Central Bank’s figures, the average amount owed on Irish credit cards peaked at the end of 2008 at €3 billion or approximately €1,350 per card. Mr McNeill told the committee that since then repayments had exceeded purchases significantly and by the end of last year the amount of credit card debt owed had fallen to €2.6 billion.
He said part of the fall could be attributed to lenders such as the Bank of Scotland exiting the market and he pointed out that as there are now fewer credit cards in circulation “the average debt per card has not fallen significantly and currently stands at €1,330”.
He said the marginal fall suggested that “many new transactions on credit cards are being repaid but that there is a portion of historic debt that is not being reduced significantly”.
The committee also heard that the interest rates being charged on credit card debt in Ireland was substantially more than elsewhere in the euro zone with Irish consumers being expected to pay a rate of interest on short-term loans of 1.5 per cent more than the euro zone average. Mr McNeill said he was unable to say why this differential existed.
He also said financial assets held by Irish consumers had fallen by more than €200 billion between the end of 2006 and the end of last year, with much of the fall explained by the collapse in the property market. The total level of household debt in the Republic stands at €190 billion with 70 per cent of the debt being accounted for by mortgages.
Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said banks were frequently asked to take write-downs on mortgage debt, which is secured, and suggested that the same demands should be put to credit card companies who could be forced to “take a hit” on the amounts owed to them by consumers struggling to make ends meet.
Several committee members suggested that more should be done to help consumers struggling to clear historic credit card debt by converting high-interest loans such as overdrafts and credit card debt into more affordable term loans
A Man gets five months suspended sentence for attack on a A&E nurse in Galway University Hospital
A five month suspended sentence has been imposed on a man who became extremely aggressive in the busy A&E department of University Hospital Galway before attacking a nurse who was trying to treat his injured friend.
At Galway District Court on Monday Sebastian Skupinski (32) with an address at Mullan Mor, Tuam Road, pleaded guilty to assault on May 9, 2009, contrary to Section 2 of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.
Inspector Ernie Whyte told the court that at 11.30pm the defendant arrived at the A&E department with an injured friend. The friend was being treated by a male nurse when the defendant became aggressive and abusive towards him. Skupinski was asked to leave the A&E, however he refused and instead punched the nurse in the face and kicked him in the left thigh before fleeing the scene.
Inspector Whyte added that the nurse had received minor bruising in the incident and when the defendant was arrested he admitted to gardai what had happened. He added that the defendant has previous conviction for public order offences in December 2004 for which he received a fine.
Defence solicitor Valerie Corcoran said that his client had been terrified as his friend had been stabbed that night and as a consequence had been bleeding heavily. Ms Corcoran added that Skupinski had “thought he [the injured friend] wasn’t being dealt with quickly” but that he accepts that there is no excuse for his behaviour. “He wasn’t in his right state of mind. He fully accepts he did more damage than good,” said Ms Corcoran who added that his client has brought €1,000 into court as a gesture of his remorse.
The injured party told Judge Mary Fahy that if the defendant had pleaded guilty to the charge he should acknowledge that “he punched me and the only reason he kicked my thigh was because I was blocking him from what he really wanted to kick”. He continued by saying: “I can understand it was a difficult time for him but it was very clear that I was no threat to him. They [the defendant and his friend] came straight in and I dealt with them immediately… he was roaring and shouting in front of other patients. I’m one of 10 male nurses, I can only imagine what it would be like for other colleagues instead of me.”
Judge Fahy then noted that the court has heard a lot of cases in which members of the caring profession have been attacked and disrupted in their work. Judge Fahy then asked the injured party if he would take the €1,000 as compensation, however he declined instead suggesting that the money go to the Galway Hospice. Commending the injured party for generousity, Judge Fahy made the order for the money to be paid to the charity.
Skupinski was then convicted and sentenced to five months in jail which was suspended for 12 months on condition that he enter into a bond of €300 to be of good behaviour.
A Rape Crisis Centre counselling services now started in Carrick-on-Shannon
The Rape Crisis and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre Sligo, Leitrim and West Cavan is delighted to announce that they are now providing a Face to Face Outreach Counselling Service in Carrick- on -Shannon, Co. Leitrim.
This free service is not only available to survivors of sexual violence but also to their supporters such as family and friends. The term Sexual Violence includes rape, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, sexual harassment, exposure to pornography, prostitution and trafficking. This new service is provided by a fully trained Rape Crisis Counsellor who has been counselling in the rape crisis centre in Sligo since 2004.
The Rape Crisis and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre Sligo, Leitrim and West Cavan was first established in 1996 to provide a local support response to survivors of sexual violence, the services provided include long term counselling, free phone help line, a survivors support group, advocacy and information service, training, education and awareness raising.
The centre offers a safe, confidential space where people are believed and supported, and believes that no matter what the circumstances the blame for sexual violence always lies with the perpetrator. The centre also operates from the belief that everyone has the capacity to move towards health and well being and that with support recovery to live a happy, fulfilled life is possible.
A spokes woman for the centre stated, “To provide Outreach Services throughout Sligo, Leitrim and West Cavan has long been an unrealised part of our Strategic Plan. This 6 month pilot project to provide face to face counselling services in Carrick is the first step towards providing accessible counselling and support throughout our catchment area.
We hope to further extend and develop our service in Carrick. Sometimes people who experience sexual violence can feel isolated and may feel that they don’t want to talk to family or friends; we offer a place where you can talk and express how you feel with someone who is trained and experienced in supporting you. The service we are offering in Carrick is face to face counselling where people have an appointment once a week, the service is free and confidential. Please do not hesitate to contact us, we are here to help.’
If you would like further information or to make an appointment in Carrick or Sligo please ring free phone 1800 750 780
50% of key A&E jobs left unfilled at eight of Ireland’s main hospitals
One of the Hospitals above Letterkenny affected by the shortages of senior Doctors.
EMERGENCY departments in eight hospitals here have more than half of their senior doctor positions unfilled, a survey shows.
The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM) is warning there exists an “unsafe deficit” of doctors working in A&E units.
Eight hospitals — two of them in Dublin — have over 50pc of their middle-grade doctor positions unfilled, according to a survey carried out by the association.
And just 71pc of senior middle-grade or registrar positions are currently filled, leaving 44 positions vacant. The vacancies mean the HSE has had to hire outside temporary agency staff, or locums, to fill these positions.
The eight hospitals with a shortage of over 50pc include Temple Street and Connolly Hospital in Dublin, as well as hospitals in Kildare, Galway, Limerick Mayo, and Donegal.
The IAEM found that three hospitals, Navan, Letterkenny and Naas, have no permanent registrar. It also found that the recent HSE drive to recruit junior doctors from Asia proved successful, but that a serious shortage still exists in terms of more senior posts.
The survey stated: “Whilst recruitment to the more junior Senior House Officer grade (SHO) has been successful, there unfortunately still remains an unsafe deficit within the more senior middle grade or registrar in emergency medicine tier.”
Warned patients will suffer: John McInerney , consultant in emergency medicine in the Mater Hospital, warned that patients will suffer.
“The special delivery reforms that have been shown to have had some impact throughout the Christmas period and the New Year — those successes will be lost if we don’t have enough staff to run departments 24/7.”
The Irish Patients’ Association also voiced its concern about the findings.
“These findings are very worrying. We need to consider the collateral damage that is being done to patients and how it must be minimised,” said chairman Stephen McMahon.
However Health Minister James Reilly rejected the findings as “misleading”.
“There are 140 registrars across our emergency department system — 99 of those positions are filled by permanent staff, 41 are filled by locums. It would be much preferably to have those locums filled by permanent staff but there are no gaps in the service. It would be wrong to get the impression that there isn’t a doctor there of suitable qualification in that post.”
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