Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Serving Cork for 120 years
What a journey!
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FROM CANCER PATIENT TO AWARD-WINNING FUNDRAISER: PAGES 22/23
Edition No: 36486
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Tuesday, February 17,
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2015 - Issue No. 895
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‘End buses nightmare’ Pattwell: Fears on Garda fines
LIFELONG LEARNING BLOSSOMS YEAR ON YEAR
Coveney: Solve strike and get service back
■ By John Dolan
■ Kelly O’Brien & Rob McNamara
A FORMER Cork District Court judge has spoken of his fear that he played an unwitting role in the garda error that led to thousands of motorists being wrongly fined. Almost 15,000 people had a penalty wrongly imposed on them by the courts between 2006 and 2011, when they were prosecuted without a fixed-charge notice first being issued. “I worry about the number of people who appeared in my court, before I retired in 2011, and claimed they hadn’t received the fixed-penalty notice,” writes retired judge Michael Pattwell in his weekly column today. “I usually didn’t believe them, though on many occasions I did dismiss the summonses when the defendants gave satisfactory evidence that the notice hadn’t been delivered. “The evidence I required was of a high standard but now it seems there is a possibility that I may have been wrong — in some cases anyway.” ■ See Page 21.
THE ongoing bus strike is an absolute “nightmare” for the people of Cork and it needs to end sooner rather than later, according to Minister Simon Coveney.
WEATHER TONIGHT C: 7º
Clear with some cloud
Christine Zhang, Cork, arranging flowers with tutor Sylvia O’Connor at a flower arranging demonstration in the Lantern Project, Georges Quay, as part of the 2017 Lifelong Learning Festival. Picture: Darragh Kane THE 14th annual Cork Lifelong Learning Festival got off to a flying start yesterday, with hundreds of people jumping at the opportunity to explore the varied opportunities in their local communities. A packed programme of events continues until Sunday, with sports
■ Audrey Ellard Walsh clubs, schools, community centres, libraries and other public buildings opening their doors to share the many exciting events and courses that they facilitate on a regular basis.
Among tomorrow’s Lifelong Learning Festival offerings, the public can take part in a personal development workshop at Terence MacSwiney Community College, Hollyhill, at 10.30am, or learn all about gravity at CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory from noon.
Today marks 12 days since the start of the strike by more than 2,600 Bus Éireann workers, who are engaged in a bitter dispute with management over pay and conditions. “For so many people, the bus strike is a nightmare in Minister Coveney: terms of getting to and from Resolve strike call. work, getting to and from college, getting to and from school... and we need to see an end to this,” said Minister Coveney. “I, like many others, would appeal to everybody to get back around the table with the Workplace Relations Commission to try and work out a way forward that is viable for the company and that the unions can live with.” When questioned about Transport Minister Shane Ross’s refusal to get involved in the situation, Minister Coveney said Minister Ross will get involved, but not until “there is an agreement as to how we can move forward”. ■ Continued on Page 2.
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