[Article] Healy Eames to appeal fine for boarding train without ticket

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...320064809.html

Healy Eames to appeal fine for boarding train without ticket
GENEVIEVE CARBERY

A FINE GAEL Senator is appealing an on-the-spot fine for boarding the Galway to Dublin train without a ticket.

Fidelma Healy Eames yesterday said she was “shocked” to learn she could not purchase tickets on board the train. The Galway West Senator said she had done this only two weeks earlier and had produced counterfoils to prove it.

Details of the incident spread quickly across online forums yesterday and caused much angry reaction, after it was first posted by a user on website Boards.ie.

Anonymous user Captain Darling said he had been on the train. He claimed that when the inspector asked for a ticket Ms Healy Eames said “that she is a Senator and that she makes the law”. “She took bloody strips off him,” the user wrote. Such claims were yesterday denied by a party spokeswoman.

A statement from Fine Gael last night said Ms Healy Eames boarded the 6.50am Dublin train at Athenry station last Thursday “in a rush”. A spokeswoman said the train was early and already in the station when she arrived. She had boarded “on the understanding that she would be able to purchase a ticket on board, as she had previously done on recent occasions”. An inspector from the company’s revenue protection unit asked her for identity, the statement said.

“She produced her Seanad ID card. She offered to buy a ticket as normal. He told her she could not buy a ticket from him and fined her €100,” the statement said.

Last night Ms Healy Eames thanked another witness, Chris Tierney, for giving his “accurate account” on Twitter. Galway photographer Tierney took to the social networking service to counter allegations about her reaction.

“I was on the train next to the Senator; she wasn’t arrogant, didn’t use the ‘do you know who I am’ route,” he tweeted. Mr Tierney told The Irish Times her behaviour could at most be described as “righteous indignation”. The Senator “should have been let away with it” because the train had been early. Although he was not “ideologically aligned” with her, he wanted to “quash a witch hunt”. He tweeted a photo of his ticket to prove he was on the train.

The original post by Captain Darling was later deleted by the user, who declined a request for interview by The Irish Times.

Iarnród Éireann’s website states: “Tickets can only be purchased on the train if the ticket office is closed and if the ticket vending machines are not in operation.”

First elected to the Seanad in 2007, Ms Healy Eames ran for a Dáil seat in the last three general elections.

[Colm Moore]

http://fidelmahealyeames.ie/2012/07/...medium=twitter

Clarification Re: Senator Healy Eames’ Train Journey
July 13, 2012

“Senator Healy Eames boarded the 6.50am train to Dublin in a rush, at Athenry station yesterday morning (Thursday). She did so on the understanding that she would be able to purchase a ticket on board, as she had previously done on recent occasions. She was approached by an officer from the revenue protection unit on board who asked her for ID. She produced her Seanad ID card. She offered to buy a ticket as normal. He told her she could not buy a ticket from him and and fined her €100.

Senator Healy Eames was shocked to learn this as she had purchased two tickets on board just weeks earlier, in June. She showed the RPU officer the counterfoils which proved that they were both purchased on the train. Senator Healy Eames has appealed the fine.”


Emma Hynes
Fine Gael National Press Office

[Colm Moore]

The original thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showt...p?t=2056700153

[comcor]

I thought a vending machine in operation was not enough and there had to be a ticket office open?

If the same rules apply to Senators as TDs, she could use immunity if she was heading to an Oireachtas sitting.

[Mark Gleeson]

The key claim here "in a rush"

No sympathy, if the booking office was staffed (and there is no claim it wasn't) bang Irish Rail have a case

I'd guess Irish Rail have made damn sure they are in the clear right now and will probably make an example of the case. As to the on train behavour claims made in several locations, the CCTV will be interesting

I'd give short odds that the fine will be paid quickly to shut the story down

[Inniskeen]

Was on the same service a week previously. Doubt the train was early unless it left Galway early. In my experience most provincial locations do not dispatch trains ahead of time unlike Cork which does so as a matter of routine. The timing from Galway to Athenry is reasonably tight especially with the ongoing 5 mph restriction on the Lough Attalia bridge and it is thus relatively difficult to get to Athenry ahead of time.

Not so sure that Irish Rail's case will prove that rock solid. On the day I travelled the booking office at Athenry was open (as is normal) and the ticket machines appeared to be operational also (I saw people collecting tickets). I suspect that the ticket checker on the train sold a ticket (or tickets) although as I was a few bays away I am not 100% sure on that point.

I have definitely seen "regular" ticket checkers selling tickets on board inter-city trains on recent trips. It is also common for for tickets to be issued at the barriers at some stations, particularly in the Dublin suburban area. Like so much about Irish Rail the approach is not consistent.

[Jamie2k9]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

The key claim here "in a rush"

No sympathy, if the booking office was staffed (and there is no claim it wasn't) bang Irish Rail have a case

I'd guess Irish Rail have made damn sure they are in the clear right now and will probably make an example of the case. As to the on train behavour claims made in several locations, the CCTV will be interesting

I'd give short odds that the fine will be paid quickly to shut the story down

Couldn't agree more, she will need to set the alarm clock earlier in future...