Finbarr McCarthy

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• #1 by Brian on September 26, 2009 - 3:13 pm

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  Looks like the usual bureaucracy that makes such incompetent decisions. I hope via twitter etc you can bring the necessary bad press to Cork City Council so that they revoke this fine and apologise for their actions.

  I imagine this unecessary pressure is not helping with your health either.

  Good work and don’t let the eejits get you down.

• #2 by Sean Mathews on September 26, 2009 - 3:40 pm

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  Hey Dude

  This is a disgrace - its not unexpected carry on from the city council and I really hope they wake up and take note. My brother is disabled too and about 2 years ago had a similar story, he went all the way to court and the bastards just dropped the charge on the day - he was furious about the grief they put him through and wasting his day, I know that mobility is one of the most important ways to stay independent and this crap doesnt help. Maybe you could get a solicitor to represent you and claim expenses or some kind of counter claim?

  Keep the faith…. Sean

• #3 by Chris on September 26, 2009 - 7:52 pm

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  I would refer this to the Ombudsman. In my experience they frown on this type of behaviour by a Publc Body. Best of luck with whatever action you take.

• #4 by Enda on September 26, 2009 - 8:35 pm

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  It’s so so typical Fin!

  How many times over the years - in different ways - have they tried to do this, or similar, to people.

  I won’t even tell you to keep fighting them - I know it’s not necessary!!

  Keep the head up - talk to you soon,

  E.

• #5 by Dankoozy on September 27, 2009 - 8:20 am

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  shaggers, they are really desparate for a bit of cash. I was parked in a loading bay at 5pm and the people in the car beside me got out no more than 3 minutes later the clampers showed up to clamp them. dirty feckers, really dirty feckers now

• #6 by Jim Ryan on September 27, 2009 - 8:39 am

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  The wardens and the city council are their own worst enemies. Dont shoot the messenger but the wardens do provide a needed service - however there are some of the wardens that are complete scum. I have noticed this one particular guy many times hiding himself around a corner etc, watching & waiting for some poor unsuspecting motorist to leave their car where it shouldn’t be and then swooping in for the kill. I mean come on and give me a break - he should walk up to these people and tell them to move on as opposed to sneaking in to issue a fine.

  On the issue at hand, I think Chris’s suggestion of going to the ombudsman is a great idea - It might be worth your while writing to your local councilor but I would be a bit surprised if they would be bothered to do anything about this.

  Its bloody typical that they have an appeals process and it very much looks like the same person who applied the fine in the first place conducted the appeal - either that or it was a case of “Computer Says… NO”

  Best of luck and fair play to you for sticking up to them.

• #7 by Scratchy on September 27, 2009 - 9:05 am

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  Hey Finbarr. First good man for standing up and being counted on this, I am not using my real name here because I run a small business in Cork and dont want to become a marked man by the city council;-)

  I know of a number of small businesses that have moved out of the city simply because of the parking wardens - cut off your nose to spite your face

  I agree with most of the comments made here by other people and think the ombudsman is your best shot. I read your blog on monitoring your online brand and was just wondering if anyone in Cork City Council bothered to do the same??? - do they have any idea that the clouds of a sh*t storm are gathering online for them??? LOL

• #8 by Sean Mathews on September 27, 2009 - 9:18 am

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  Hey Dude

  After reading this last night I was so mad that I emailed all the members of Cork City Council. I got an email back from Cllr. Jonathan O’Brien and I have to say Kudos Cllr. O’Brien for dealing with this. I dont have your email address so I will paste the reply here. If I get any other replies I will post them up here.

  Please let us know how this works out.

  Hi Sean,

  Thank you for the email regarding Mr. Finbarr McCarthy. Can I first point out that I was not aware of the situation and do feel that is a little unfair to say your disappointed that this happened under my watch. There is no way that I or any other elected member could have known that this had happened. If Mr. McCarthy had brought it to the attention of an elected member then I have no doubt that they would have made representation on his behalf.

  Having said that I do agree with you that it is not right that Mr. McCarthy has had to endure what he has gone through. It is clear to me that the vehicle in question displays a disabled parking permit as standard, therefore it would be fair to presume then that on this particular occasion the permit was displayed as is usually the case. I believe that the traffic warden in question made an honest mistake and issued the ticket without seeing the disabled parking permit. That is of no consolation to Mr. McCarthy I know but I do not believe that the City Council is corrupt or discriminatory in nature and can only assume that this is a honest mistake. I do not believe that any traffic warden would intentionally issue a traffic ticket to a vehicle displaying a disable parking permit.

  I have emailed Nichola Bernardi in the traffic division asking that they rescind the fine and admit to making an honest mistake in this instance. I await their response which I will forward onto you. I trust that you will forward this email to Mr. McCarthy as I do not have an email contact for him.

  Regards

  Cllr. Jonathan O Brien
  ******************************************************

  Wording of the Email I have sent to the traffic department is as follows;

  A Chara Nichola,

  I am writing to you in relation to fixed charged penalty notice: 1094505502545. This ticket was issued to Mr. Finbarr McCarthy, car reg No. 08C7895 on the 4th of March, 2009.

  I understand that Mr. McCarthy appealed the ticket and this was unsuccessful. From my knowledge of the incident it seems to me that there has been an honest mistake made by the traffic warden. Mr. McCarthy is in possession of disabled parking permit which is always displayed in his car. I would argue that the traffic warden in question innocently issued the ticket having not seen the disabled parking permit.

  It is reasonable to argue that Mr. McCarthy’s vehicle had the permit displayed as he always has it on display. I know that there has been considerable correspondence between yourself and Mr. McCarthy on the issue but I ask that this fixed charged penalty notice be withdrawn on the basis that it should not have been issued in the first place under our parking regulations.

  I trust that you will give this request serious consideration and the penalty will be rescinded by the Council in the interests of fairness.

  Regards

  Cllr. Jonathan O Brien

• #9 by Sean Mathews on September 28, 2009 - 8:34 am

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  from.Emmet O’Halloran
  to.Sean Mathews
  subject.Your E-mail

  Hi Sean,

  Thank you for your e-mail. I have read the correspondence between Finbarr and Cork City Council and I am very disappointed as to how he was treated. I cannot speak for every member of Cork City Council but I have little doubt that my colleagues would also be appauled when they read your e-mail.

  It would appear that Finbarr had all of the necessary documentation in order and should not be in the position that he now find himself in.

  I also understand that other Councillors have made representations on Finbarr’s behalf already but I wish to confirm that I have also e-mailed Nichola Bernardi and the in support of Finbarr’s case.

  Take care and thank you for flagging this with me.

  Regards,

  Emmet

  from.Emmet O’Halloran
  to.Nichola Bernardi
  cc.Eddie Hawkins
  date.Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 9:36 AM
  subject.Penelty Notice 1094505502545

  Dear Nichola,

  I am writing to you in relation to penelty notice 1094505502545 , Vehicle Reg 08 C 7895 which was issued to Mr. Finbar McCarthy in March 2009.

  I understand that Mr. McCathy has displayed his disable parking permit on his vehicle and it would appear that they may have been a genuine mistake on the part of the traffic warden.

  I understand that Mr. McCarthy has appealed this penelty and I would ask in the interest of fairness that you would consider looking favourably on this appeal.

  Regards,

  Cllr Emmet O’Halloran

• #10 by Richard on September 28, 2009 - 11:39 am

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  From my dealings with the City Council it is too flattering to consider that it could be anything other than incompetence.

  What you have here is a business (a public authority in this case) with lots of small local rules that allow them to operate. In this instance their rule is to refuse all appeals (to do otherwise would be to accept that their staff had failed in their duty) and to only review that rule at the 11th hour (when a law agent advises them to drop or proceed with the charge). The route you have gone through with your friends, etc, of invoking elected representatives might alter the rule.

  What is missing from this business rule or this model is the customer service section - just look a the pro-forma language in their letters. The performance indicator here has nothing to do with customer service or employee initiative so the bureaucratic machine will roll on until you march into the district court and they drop the case (the thought of being chewed up by the district court judge will make them drop it, even if you were wrong).

  You could transplant this experience to any of their other businesses (planning, environment, refuse, water services, roads, parks and so on).

  I would say that as a public organisation they are particularly bad as they have no sense of collective purpose (like serving the customers). All of this stems from a lack of leadership and a drift away from their raison d’etre. As they suffer financially over the next few years they’ll have to change their business practices. Their rates base is ever declining as business and the population in general leave. The only part of the country to experience a fall in population during the boom?!

  best of luck.

• #11 by Kieran McCarthy on September 28, 2009 - 11:49 am

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  I agree too with my colleagues remarks above. I have also written to Cork City Council asking for the rescinding of the issued ticket. It’s important that communication is ongoing between citizen and local representative. If we have no knowledge of an incident, we can’t help or represent people.

  Cllr. Kieran McCarthy

• #12 by Sean Mathews on September 28, 2009 - 12:38 pm

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  from.Michael Ahern
  to.Sean Mathews

  Hi Sean,

  It would seem that Finbarr McCarthy has no case to answer and it would also seem that he has been harrassed unduly. The “mistake” should have been rectified when he appealed. I expect that my fellow councillors intervention will bring a favourable resolution to this but if not I will certainly join with them to help to restore sanity and justice.

  Regards,

  Michael Ahern.

• #13 by Ger Bon on September 29, 2009 - 3:06 pm

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  This is a standard form and reply, due to cutbacks they only have one form now.

  EVERYONE who disputes, gets one. AND further to this, they usually DELAY the appeal decision until the fine is now the HIGHER one.

  But, it is NOT the elected councillors, the City Manager is the BOSS and it’s his staff that are the questionable link.

  City Council itself is just a puppet show, the real power is not with them ~ it’s a problem with Irish Politics where we elect powerless people and EMPLOY untouchable bureaucrats who rule, ruthlessly.

• #14 by Des on September 29, 2009 - 8:41 pm

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  I see that the “no parking on footpaths” rule or the “no parking on double yellow lines” rule doesn’t apply if you’re the Mayor or his driver.

  Taken tonight outside City Hall:

  http://blog.despod.com/2009/09/when-you-mayor-of-cork-double.html

• #15 by Ger Bon on September 30, 2009 - 7:10 am

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  Actually, no parking rules apply to the Lord Mayor’s car, it’s the First Citizen rule, he’d also not have paid any tolls or fees that would have abounded in years gone by and his horses would have been kept and stabled by the people he was visiting.

  It also does not apply because the car is a commercial and is allowed a loading period, even on 2XYellows. Alos notice the precise spot is a combi area, IE and area that motorised vehicles can use for loading purposes.

  I think the driver in the posted photo should have either stayed all on the road or all on the ‘footpath’ it does look sloppy ~ but there are different rules applied to commercial vehicles, service vehicles and public vehicles.

• #16 by Lisakitn on October 2, 2009 - 4:14 pm

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  OMG is all i can say as a fellow disabled badge owner i feel really strongly for you. Good man for posting this you are so brave. I have numerious conditions which means i need this to make my life a little easier you and i both understand the difficulties we have to face each and every day in order to cope with life in general. Its a few more disabled parking spots and those spots kept clear for the people who need the most, the disabled. Keep Strong Finbarr.
  Kind regards Lisa

• #17 by sam on October 7, 2009 - 8:31 pm

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  poor you finbarr. did they tell ya why they rejected your appeal letter? i know myself over the past few years i have appealed fines and although some were granted other i was not so lucky with but i did not accept that until they told me why. my letter did not really explain why they were against granting my appeals. but i did find out that there is a period of time that you can appeal and outside that period they wont accept the appeal and they reject it then. i was happy enough with hat though . i just didn’t read the part about how many days i had to appeal so felt like a bit of an eegit myself but i have been successful on a few occasions too. i think there is only ever a 50/50 chance of it being a positive outcome really with making an appeal against any thing.
  any way good luck with what ever comes from this in court. better you than me mate but seriously good luck with it.

• #18 by Finbarr McCarthy on October 9, 2009 - 12:08 pm

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  The saga continues:
  —————————————————
  2009/10/9 Finbarr McCarthy

  Dear Cllr O’Brien

  I received your email below via a Mr Sean Mathews. Many thanks for your efforts on my behalf in this matter, it is truly appreciated. As you are probably aware this incident has been a source of significant frustration to me and reading the correspondence from Ms. O’Connell below I am now more convinced than ever, that there are very serious issues to deal with in the traffic dept of Cork City Council. I too am disappointed in the outcome although I admit (from my experience of Cork City Council to date) I not surprised in the least.

  Firstly, Ms. O’Connell’s email is the first indication I have received that the warden in question did actually note that a Disabled Persons Parking Permit was displayed on my car. If indeed the warden was unable to view the serial number and the expiry date on the permit that would mean that approx half of the permit was obscured from his view, which I find extraordinary. In fact the card is mounted in a pouch (much like your tax and insurance disk) on the lower right hand side of the windscreen in clear view. I examined the placement of this and under any circumstances cannot understand why any competent person could not identify the details in question.

  In any case, within hours of receiving the initial fine I wrote to the parking department in Cork City Council and included photographs of the permit for their information, if they had any doubts about the authenticity of the Permit this should have resolved the issue for them. The response I received never made any reference to the Disabled Persons Parking Permit and continued to allege that an offence was committed (on the basis of not displaying a parking disc). The appeal process is from my perspective entirely inadequate, has no transparency and is in fact not an appeals process at all, but a formality which has a pre-determined outcome.

  I am beginning to wonder at this stage is there any legislation protecting people who abide by the law and are in reality bullied by the bureaucracy embedded within Cork City Council. The other questions that come to mind relate to my original question. Is this discrimination, institutional corruption or outright incompetence by the traffic/parking department of Cork City Council. In the first instance may I repeat that any competent person would have been able to clearly identify the Parking Permit (and its expiry date / serial number etc) as it was very clearly displayed on the windscreen and secondly, are the Warden and the person who conducted the appeal accountable in any manner to either the rule of law or the people which they serve (the tax paying public) or have they become so institutionalised that they have lost touch completely with that concept?

  At this point, I am going to take the advice of some of the people who commented on my blog and refer the issue in its entirety to the Office of The Ombudsman and see if they have any mechanisms to resolve the issue. In the interest of transparency I am going to publish this email on my blog along with all the other correspondence and comments.

  I am also going to make enquiries as to whether there are any legislative provisions to deal with public officials (the traffic wardens and the members of the traffic/parking department) who I must now assume are knowingly perverting the course of law and knowingly abusing the powers they have been bestowed with.

  Kind regards

  Finbarr McCarthy
  —————————————————

  2009/10/6 Sean Mathews

  Dear Finbarr

  For your information i got the following email from Cllr Jonathan O’Brien.

  Regards
  Sean

  ———- Forwarded message ———-
  From: Jonathan O’Brien
  Date: Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 9:39 PM
  Subject: FW: 1094505502545 - Finbarr McCarthy
  To: “Sean Mathews

  Hi Sean,

  I have got a reply from the Traffic Dept to the email I forwarded to them on behalf of Mr. McCarthy. It is not the outcome I had hoped for but this is as far as I can take the issue. I regret that it has come to this and will be working with my party colleagues to try and ensure that this is never repeated.

  Regards
  Jonathan O Brien

  From: Deborah O’Connell
  Sent: Mon 05/10/2009 09:11
  To: Jonathan O’Brien
  Subject: 1094505502545 - Finbarr McCarthy

  To whom it may concern,

  With reference to the recent correspondence to my colleague Nichola, please be advised that once a ticket goes to summons stage, we are unable to dismiss it.

  The charge Mr. McCarthy is faced with is that the disk he displayed was not clearly visible when the warden gave the ticket. Under the regulations the disk must be clearly visible to the warden, he has noted that he was unable to read either the expiry date or serial number of the disabled permit, and so the ticket was validly issued. Mr. McCarthy was then advised that payment was required. As payment has not been received a summons was issued. Mr. McCarthy can appeal his case directly to the district court judge on the 21st January 2010.

  Mise le meas,

  Deborah

  Deborah O’Connell

  Traffic Section

  Cork City Council

• #19 by John on November 1, 2009 - 5:47 pm

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  Finnbarr, I too would be angry and upset put in your position however I do not think you should be naming any Council Employee (such as Miss Bernardi) who is only doing her job.

• #20 by Fergus O'Rourke on November 2, 2009 - 5:21 pm

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  This is outrageous, for several reasons.

  1. You were not informed of the particulars of the offence alleged until (long) after your “appeal” was rejected.

  2. The appeal decision contains no reasoning whatsoever.

  3. Your entitlement to the exemption is not disputed.

  4. There is no reason of which I am aware that the Council is “unable to dismiss” a summons clearly issued in error.

  I would not delay further in complaining to the Ombudsman. I would write to the City Manager, and “copy in” the newsdesks of the media, local and national.

  Any local government official putting his or her name to communications of the nature published here must accept the reputational consequences. I am afraid that I have no sympathy for them. “Only doing their job” when the job involves this kind of conduct is a version of the Nuremburg defence (”I was only following orders”).

  Finally, one must give some credit to the councillors for making representations, but I am a little surprised that none has yet taken it further and that the ridiculous answers they received were apparently so meekly accepted in some cases. However, I note what Michael O’Connell said and in fairness to the others, you do not say whether you are directly represented by any of them, or whether they are aware of the full story portrayed here.

• #21 by Fiona on November 3, 2009 - 9:37 pm

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  Dear Finbarr,
  in relation to your drama with Cork City Council, I think your approach was a bit callous. Firstly Councilor O Brien should not be naming any person employed by the Council. Not only is he working for the people of the city he is also an elected member representing people working in the council. The individual who issued the initial reply was only following procedure which is set out by the laws of the city involved. Secondly these laws are there for a reason. I as a member of the general public have witnessed on numerous occasions persons parking vehicles in disabled spots and as your sticker was not displayed properly how can the traffic warden be expected to know that it was a current disabled parking disc. In conclusion you should learn from your mistake

  Regards
  Ms Murphy

• #22 by Finbarr McCarthy on November 7, 2009 - 4:26 pm

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  Dear Ms Murphy of post #21 (Who incidentally is the same person referring to themselves as John in post #19),

  I don’t believe that I am being callous at all, I do not know how to put this in simpler terms - the parking permit was displayed in a clear manner and any competent person could tell you as much (I can present the car for independent inspection if that helps you). Your comment that my “sticker was not displayed properly” is the height of ignorance and makes me think that you are either one of the people mentioned above or the anonymous “Warden 45″. You will note that I didn’t mention any names in my post, and I posted all the details here in a clear and transparent manner.

  If Cork City Council or its employees want to brand my actions as callous while they remain hiding behind their bureaucratic curtain of anonymity that’s their choice. In any case, Cork City Council seem to have no regard for my privacy when they refer a bogus charge to a public court and I can have little sympathy for anyone in the council who is claiming the “Nuremberg defence” (see Fergus O’Rourke’s comment above).

  The warden, and everyone in Cork City Council who put their name to this should be accountable for their actions, we are all human and mistakes happen - however the manner in which this whole incident has been dealt with all the way through the City Council begs me to ask the question in the title again! “Cork City Council - Corrupt, Discriminatory or Incompetent?” because if this was a simple mistake, there have been several opportunities to admit the mistake and take corrective action.

  Kind regards

  Finbarr

• #23 by Finbarr McCarthy on November 8, 2009 - 3:29 pm

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  Hi Fergus

  I have complained to the Office of the Ombudsman today and await their response.

  Thanks for your feedback.

  Kind regards

  Finbarr

• #24 by Owen on November 20, 2009 - 8:26 am

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  Let it go to court, on the day when they decide to drop it (as they will) ask your solicitor to make them pay for your time and the worry. Call the press beforehand and make sure it makes the paper. Don’t sweat this one, any judge will throw them out on their ear for dragging you in.

• #25 by Terence O'Sullivan on November 22, 2009 - 8:03 am

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  Finbarr,

  I was trying to check on the floods and came across your story. Appalling, and I must commend you on the organised way you went about dealing with a fine improperly imposed.

  You may already have retained a solicitor but if not I’m prepared to act on your behalf pro bono, or free of charge. It’s just not acceptable!

  Terence O’Sullivan
  Terence J O’Sullivan Solicitors

• #26 by Terence O'Sullivan on November 22, 2009 - 8:13 am

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  Finbarr,

  I’m a solicitor and confirm if you haven’t retained a lawyer yet that I’m prepared to act for you pro bono, or free of charge. What happened to you is simply not on.

  You can find me at http://www.tjos.ie.

  Terence O’Sullivan
  Terence J O’Sullivan Solicitors

• #27 by Marian on March 2, 2010 - 12:51 pm

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  Dear Finbarr,

  I happened upon your blog post while carrying out some research on the topic of parking fines appeals lodged to Cork City Council, and I have read of your trials with great interest. I, too, have had an irritating problem with the Traffic Division in recent weeks: in short, I received a Fixed Charge Penalty for allegedly not displaying a parking disc on College Road some weeks back. Despite submitting an appeal which was supported by a substantial body of evidence which shows that I did, in fact, use a parking disc on that day, my appeal was also rejected, and I received exactly the same correspondence as you received (although the grammar used in the template appears to have degenerated in the intervening time!). Unlike you, I paid the €40 fine without prejudice so as to avoid being issued with an even higher fine for an offence which I demonstrably did not commit, but am actively seeking a rebate at present.

  I wondered if you might update as to the outcome of your appeal to the Ombudsman? Since I, like yourself, have found that the employees of the Traffic Division have failed entirely to properly discharge their duties in relation to my case, I am considering bringing the matter to the attention of the Ombudsman and would be interested to know if you have had any success in this endeavour. Furthermore, the question of parking fines, clamping and towing seems to be something of a local media ‘hot topic’ this week and I’m sure that my story could be of interest to any of the media outlets which have discussed the topic in recent days.

  All the best,

  Marian.

• #28 by Brigette on March 6, 2010 - 6:14 pm

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  Hi Finbarr,

  Just wanted to know what the latest update is, did you go to court and have your say?

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