Thurles – (5 seats): Jim Ryan (Independent); Micheál Lowry (Independent); Sean Ryan (Fianna Fáil); Kay Cahill Skehan (Fianna Fáil) and Peggy Ryan (Fine Gael).
Roscrea-Templemore – (4 seats): Michael Smith (Fianna Fáil); Shane Lee (Independent), Eddie Moran (Independent) and William Kennedy (Fine Gael).
Newport – (4 seats): Fiona Bonfield (Labour); Pamela Quirke O’Meara (Independent); Phyll Bugler (Fine Gael) and John Carroll (Fianna Fáil).
Nenagh – (5 seats): Joe Hannigan (Independent); Michael O’Meara (Independent), Ryan O’Meara (Fianna Fáil), Louise Morgan Walsh (Labour) and Seamus Morris (Independent).
Clonmel – (6 seats): Michael Murphy (Fine Gael); Pat English (Workers and Unemployed Action/WUA); Siobhán Ambrose (Fianna Fáil); John Fitzgerald (Fine Gael), Richie Molloy (Independent) and Niall P Dennehy (Independent).
Cashel-Tipperary – (7 seats): John O’Heney (Independent); Declan Burgess (Fine Gael), Liam Browne (Independent), Hanna Mary Hourigan (Fine Gael), Roger Kennedy (Fianna Fáil), John Crosse (Fine Gael) and Annemarie Ryan (Shiner) (Sinn Féin).
Carrick-on-Suir – (5 seats): Imelda Goldsboro (Fianna Fáil); David Dunne (Sinn Féin); Michael ‘Chicken’ Brennan (Labour), Kieran Bourke (Fianna Fáil) and Mark FitzGerald (Fine Gael).
Cahir – (4 seats): Máirín McGrath (Independent); Andy Moloney (Independent), Marie Murphy (Fine Gael) and Micheál Anglim (Fianna Fáil).
Target of at least 1,000 Garda Reserve members by 2026.
Garda Reserves bring a variety of experiences and perspectives to AGS to support community policing.
Increase in the stipend for Garda Reserve Members to a maximum of €3,000 per annum.
A new recruitment campaign for Garda reserves, opens for applications today Wednesday, June 5th 2024 and will close on July 4th 2024.
The Garda Reserve is a volunteer service drawn from local communities. Reserves work alongside full time Garda members performing varied work, including with the Road Traffic Unit, ensuring public safety during State visits, policing public order incidents, assisting with crowd control at large scale public events and supporting the regular day-to-day community policing work of An Garda Síochána.
An increase in the maximum tax-free stipend to be paid to Reserve Members from €1,000 per annum for over 100 hours of volunteering in a year to €3,000 for over 200 hours of volunteering has now been secured and a graduated scale of stipend will apply depending on the total number of hours volunteered.
The new graduated scale for the stipend for Garda Reserve Members is set out on the table below.
Hours Completed
Rate Of Stipend
50 Hours
€500
100 Hours
€1,000
150 Hours
€2,000
200 Hours
€3,000
The Garda Reserve was first established in 2006. There are currently 341 serving Garda Reserve Members. At its peak in 2013 the number of Reserve Gardaí reached 1,164. A target has been set to reach at least 1,000 Garda Reserves by the year 2026.
The Garda Reserve represents a real opportunity for anyone wishing to support policing and give something back to their communities. Reserves bring a variety of experiences and perspectives to the organisation, including local knowledge and links to the communities in which they serve, which brings to life An Garda Síochána’s core value of community policing.
Prospective candidates can visit publicjobs.ie for more information on how to apply.
Seventy candidates are seeking election to 40 seats across Tipperary County Council’s eight electoral areas.
Six sitting Tipperary councillors, namely Fine Gael’s Michael Fitzgerald, Independents Hughie McGrath and John “Rocky” McGrath, Fine Gael’s Ger Darcy and Noel Coonan, and Fianna Fáil’s Seamus Hanafin have all opted not to stand for re-election in 2024.
Here in the Thurles local election area, those seeking re-election are Micheál Lowry (Independent), Peggy Ryan (Fine Gael), Sean Ryan (Fianna Fáil), and Jim Ryan (Independent). Seeking election for the first time are Kay Cahill Skehan (Fianna Fáil) and Dan Harty (Sinn Féin).
Vote ‘Em Out.
Lyrics: American country singer, guitarist and songwriter Willie Nelson. Vocals:Willie Nelson.
Vote ‘Em Out.
If you don’t like who’s in there, vote ’em out. That’s what Election Day is all about. The biggest gun we’ve got, Is called “the ballot box”, So if you don’t like who’s in there, vote ’em out. Vote ’em out (vote ’em out), Vote ’em out (vote ’em out), And when they’re gone, we’ll sing and dance and shout. Bring some new ones in, And we’ll start that show again, And if you don’t like who’s in there, vote ’em out. If it’s a bunch of clowns you voted in, Election Day is comin’ ’round again. If you don’t like it now, If it’s more than you’ll allow, If you don’t like who’s in there, vote ’em out. Vote ’em out (vote ’em out), Vote ’em out (vote ’em out), And when they’re gone, we’ll sing and dance and shout. Bring some new ones in, And we’ll start the show again, And if you don’t like who’s in there, vote ’em out. Vote ’em out (vote ’em out), Vote ’em out (vote ’em out), That’s what Election Day is all about. The biggest gun we’ve got, Is called “the ballot box”, So if you don’t like who’s in there, vote ’em out. If you don’t like who’s in there, well vote ’em out.
A former Thurles Circuit Court judge, due to be sentenced today for the sexual abuse of six young men, some 30 years ago, has had the case adjourned, yet again, before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon, until Friday of this week.
Mr Gerard O’Brien, aged 59 years, of the School House, Slievenamon Road, Thurles, Co Tipperary, had been convicted in December 2023 last, at the Central Criminal Court on one count of attempted anal rape and eight counts of sexual assault, relating to all six victims.
The offences were understood to have occurred at locations in Dublin, between March 1991 and November 1997, during a time when Mr O’Brien was employed as a teacher at Christian Brothers College, Monkstown, Co. Dublin.
His victims; four of whom were students or former students, were then aged between 17 and 24 and same had previously indicated they wished for O’Brien to be named publicly, while maintaining their own personal anonymity.
Mr O’Brien was born with the rare congenital condition, known as Phocomelia, which has resulted in him being born with no arms and only one leg; same injuries brought on by the congenital anomaly of the drug Thalidomide, brought into prominence as a characteristic side effect of the use of the drug, used during pregnancy.
Mr Justice Alexander Owens had previously indicated, that his provisional view was that he would impose a custodial sentence on Mr O’Brien and had sought a report from the Irish Prison Services in relation to the facilities which would be available to O’Brien, before remanding him on continuing bail until today.
O’Brien had pleaded not guilty to all the allegations. The former teacher; Tipperary Fianna Fáil Councillor and Circuit Court judge (appointed to the latter post in 2015), resigned as a judge in January 2024.
Up to five years imprisonment if found guilty on indictment.
One of a set of holistic measures under the Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027.
Complemented by Greentown Programme which seeks to disrupt the influence of organised crime groups on young people.
The Minister for Justice Mrs Helen McEntee and the Minister of State with responsibility for Youth Justice Mr James Browne have welcomed the coming into effect of legislation criminalising adults who draw children into crime.
Minister McEntee has this morning commenced the Criminal Justice (Engagement of Children in Criminal Activity) Act 2024, which makes it an offence for an adult to either force or encourage children to engage in any criminal activity.
Those found guilty of the new offences may face imprisonment of up to 12 months on summary conviction and up to five years on indictment.
The legislation recognises the life-long impact and harm done to a child by drawing them into criminal activity, and is one of a set of holistic measures being progressed by the Department of Justice and Minister Browne under the Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027 to address youth offending.
Under that Strategy, the Department has established an intensive intervention pilot called the Greentown Programme, which is specifically focused on disrupting organised crime groups who lure children into crime, and improving outcomes for children at risk or already engaged in criminal networks.
Speaking today, Minister McEntee said: “This important legislation will criminalise adults who are ruining young people’s lives and blighting their communities by forcing or enticing them into criminal lifestyles. While offending might start small, it often snowballs into something more serious and suddenly there is no way out for a young person whose life can become plagued by debts, fear and intimidation.
It will be an important tool in the arsenal of Gardaí to disrupt criminal networks and pursue those who use vulnerable young people to keep their own hands clean, complementing the holistic intervention work already underway through the Greentown Programme.
We must pursue those who do the harm, but also work to undo the harm – the Greentown Programme provides intensive wraparound supports and interventions for young people either at risk of or already influenced by criminal networks. It provides intensive supports for the positive development and diversion of the affected children, as well as their family members.
I would like to thank my colleague Minister Browne for his work in developing this legislation and seeing it through the Houses. I look forward to seeing its impact.”
Welcoming the commencement of the Act, Minister Browne said:
“Seeing this legislation over the line has been a key priority for me given its centrality to the Youth Justice Strategy. To really change and reduce youth offending, we need a holistic approach – criminalising those who induce children into criminal activity, creating pro-social opportunities for young people at risk, and intensive interventions for those who are already involved in criminality to improve their long-term outcomes.
The reality is that some children are dealt a losing hand when they have people in their lives – it could be a parent, a cousin, a sibling, a neighbour – who actively exploit them. These people do immeasurable harm to the life of a young person and this legislation recognises that.
Young people may be coerced, forced or enticed by promises of wealth and social status, but what may seem like a quick way to make money or even as something glamourous or cool, very typically turns sour.
A criminal conviction can seriously affect young people’s opportunities to travel abroad, to gain access to education or work, all of which can set people onto worse paths.
This legislation will help to prevent the next generation from being used and abused by criminal gangs, and will contribute to the building of safer, stronger communities.”
This meets objectives contained in both the Programme for Government and the Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027.
A key objective in handling youth crime is to try to keep young people out of the criminal justice system as far as possible. The provisions in this legislation limit liability for the offences to adults in order to avoid further consequences for children who are already victims of crime themselves and who may also have been groomed.
The Government is committed to supporting youth justice services in every way possible. In Budget 2024, a further €2.9 million in funding was allocated to youth justice services, increasing the total budget allocation for the youth diversion measures to over €33 million.
This new legislation has been informed by the Greentown Programme, which is being implemented by the University of Limerick in partnership with the Department of Justice and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and was recognised at the 2020 European Crime Prevention Awards. The aim of the Programme is to investigate the involvement of children in criminality and to establish interventions to tackle the problem.
The Criminal Justice (Engagement of Children in Criminal Activity) Act 2024 can be found HERE.
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