Category Archives: Misc

LuciaHusband

Lucia and Jim O’Farrell hold a picture of their late son, Shane

You may recall the death of Shane O’Farrell.

Shane, aged 23, was killed in a hit-and-run outside Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan on August 2, 2011.

The man who struck Shane was Zigimantas Gridzuiska, 39, from Lithuania. He had 42 previous convictions in three different jurisdictions and was out on bail at the time of Shane’s death.

During the sentencing of Gridzisuka, Ms O’Farrell claims Judge Pat McCartan asked if there was anything coming up in the pipeline for Gridziuska and that the State solicitor failed to notify the judge that – over the five months before Gridziuska’s trial – a file had been prepared in relation to insurance fraud charges against Gridziuska.

Gridziuska then received an eight-month suspended sentence on condition he leave Ireland.

However just days after he was ordered to leave the State, Gridziuska appeared in Carrickmacross District Court for insurance fraud and was jailed for five months by Judge Sean MacBride. This was in relation to three policies of insurance fraud, one of which covered the day on which Shane was killed.

Further to this, Shane’s mother Lucia O’Farrell sued Gridzuiska for nervous shock. She settled this afternoon.

The Irish Times reports:

She told Mr Justice Raymond Fullam joy has gone out of her life since her son died.

“I relive every minute of the day that it happened. I will never move on. My life is over,” she said.

In her High Court action, Lucia O’Farrell sued for nervous shock claiming, since the accident, she has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and a severe grief reaction including flashbacks and nightmares.

On Wednesday, her counsel Gabriel Gavigan SC said the case had settled and could be struck out. The terms of settlement are confidential.

Anthony Kidney SC, for Mr Gridzuiska, said the defendant’s legal team empathised and sympathised with the O’Farrells and had defended the case on the instruction of the insurer.

Mr Justice Fullam said it was in everyone’s best interests the case had settled and he hoped, with the trauma of the litigation, both criminal and civil, behind them, the family can face the future together and live with their great loss.

‘I lost my only son. Now I see everything as being over’ (Irish Times)

Previously: ‘Delay, Deny, Then Cover Up’

BBC News producer Will Vernon tweets from Lesbos island, Greece where 4,345 people are currently being detained.

Meanwhile…

Last night at the detention centre in Moria, on Lesbos Island:

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Andrew Connolly, for Raw News, reported:

A mass riot has broken out between refugees and police inside the Moria detention centre on the Greek island of Lesbos during the night of April 26.

On Tuesday afternoon, thick, black plumes of smoke could been seen floating above the facility and Raw News witnessed numerous refugees being carried out injured and suffering from tear gas inhalation.

NGO sources inside confirmed that [the] riot started in the wing which detains unaccompanied children, which then intensified after police beat a child, and subsequently used tear gas.

Riots break out at Moria refugee camp in Lesvos Island (Raw News, includes video)

Previously: ‘A Beautiful Thing To Do’

Pic: Emma Hett

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This afternoon.

Labour TD Alan Kelly.

Any excuse.

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rory

From top: Brendan McDonagh (left) and Frank Daly, CEO and Chairman of the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) respectively; Dr Rory Hearne

NAMA is worsening our housing crisis by selling  housing and land to vulture funds.

Dr Rory Hearne writes:

So the rich are just getting richer in Ireland while the poor remain poor. But the wealth at the top in Ireland is really staggering.

The latest Sunday Times Rich list shows that Ireland’s 250 richest people now hold €72.6bn. Their combined wealth is equivalent to a third of Ireland’s GDP. The top 12 individuals have a combined wealth of €34bn.Their wealth rose by 3.3% in the last year (€1.8bn).

Why this matters is because lower income and middle classes are getting a smaller slice of the pie as increasingly the wealth being created in society is going to the top. The result of this unequal distribution of wealth is our huge rates of poverty.

There are now 138,000 children living in poverty in this country. There are 912 families with 1,881 homeless children. Surely it is time to ensure a more equal distribution of wealth that would involve an increase in tax on the top wealthy in order to pay for housing for our homeless or higher welfare for our poorest families to lift them out of poverty?

Another area where wealth is being accumulated by the already super rich on the backs of ordinary Irish people is through buying up and selling on property from NAMA.

The vulture funds such as Goldman Sachs and Lone Star are lining up to buy NAMA property and loans.

NAMA is selling two portfolios of loans and assets which have a combined value of €4.7 billion.

These include, according to the Irish Times, 950 residential properties, mainly apartments, 650 of which are occupied by tenants and a further 300 vacant.

So hang on a minute! Yes, you read that right. NAMA is currently selling 950 apartments to the vulture funds. And what’s worse 300 of them are vacant.

Surely the government should stop NAMA selling these off or Compulsory Purchase them in order to use them instead to address our homeless crisis? The 300 vacant properties could be immediately used to address the crisis for 300 families.

There is a need for a spotlight to be put on NAMA and how it is currently worsening our housing crisis by selling much needed housing and land to vulture funds.

Remember we own NAMA! It is a state owned body. So there is no reason why we can’t direct NAMA to use its housing and land to address our housing crisis.

We are again giving away our assets, just like we gave away our gas and our fisheries to international corporates.

What is it about us? Do we want to be a permanent colony of international finance?

Do we have something in us that has no confidence in our own capacity and capability to provide for our citizens?

We have got to the point of dependence on international investment that we can’t do the most basic things ourselves like use our assets (land and housing) held by NAMA to house our people who need homes?

The vulture funds buying up our housing, property and land have been more active in developing countries for a number of decades. If you are interested in finding out more about the dangers and problems associated with vulture funds there is a public talk being held on the topic by the Debt and Development Coalition on Wednesday next week.

Mick Byrne, will present the findings of a new Report that looks at the risks posed by vulture funds in Ireland, the experience of the Global South and the role that is being played by the Irish Government.

Tony Romano of the US housing rights organisation Right to the City will also be there to talk about how tenants in the US have been affected by the vulture funds who have bought their buildings. Details here

Dr Rory Hearne is a policy analyst, academc, social justice campaigner. He writes here in a personal capacity. Follow Rory on Twitter: @roryhearne

Related: Julien Mercille: Swoop Of The Vulture

Meanwhile…

A tweet by Fine Gael TD Noel Rock in February

Newly elected TD Fine Gael was a Dublin City Councillor prior to him winning his seat in the Dáil on February 26.

He won his Dublin City Council seat in June 2014.

During his campaign for his council seat, he made a ‘no expenses pledge‘, saying he wouldn’t taken any unvouched expenses as a councillor.

However, Mr Rock is now claiming all the unvouched expenses that he is entitled to as a TD.

Louisa McGrath, in the Dublin Inquirer, reports:

…Rock said by email that he is taking a different approach to expenses as a TD.

In theory, by not taking expenses as a councillor, Rock’s unclaimed money was going back into the council and therefore into the community.

But he says it was probably just being used to to pay the expenses of other councillors, and he was often approached by community groups asking if they could use some of this money.

So this time, he wrote, he is claiming all the unvouched expenses that he is entitled to as a TD and — along with the expenses claimed by Norma Sammon, his replacement on Dublin City Council — this money will go into a community fund for the north side of the city.

Which new Dublin TDs are taking travel expenses? (Dublin Inquirer)