A judge who reduced a cyclist’s damages by 80 per cent and branded cyclists a “nightmare in Dublin” has been referred to Ireland’s Judicial Council over his remarks.
Judge James O’Donohoe was widely criticised for his comments at a civil court hearing over a motorcyclist’s collision with a cyclist. Ioan Giurgila suffered a brain injury and 12 soft tissue injuries but saw his total damages claim slashed to €17,628 and costs.
The Labour Party has now submitted a formal complaint to the Judicial Council, the courts’ independent standards body. Ciarán Ahern, Labour’s Transport spokesman, said O’Donohoe’s remarks were “deeply problematic, and exhibited a clear perception of bias against cyclists in his decision-making.
““Cyclists have become a nightmare in Dublin” is an untrue, unfair and frankly ignorant statement. The reality is actually much the opposite – being a cyclist is often a nightmare with a lack of safe, segregated cycle lanes, dangerous junctions, poor lighting, poor maintenance of existing bike lanes and record levels of bike theft among some of the many issues cyclists face in Dublin and across the country.
“14 cyclists were killed on our roads in 2025 – the highest number of cyclists lives lost since 2017. Indeed, 2025 was a devastating year on our roads, seeing 190 people lose their lives. Every road death is a tragedy for the families and communities impacted.
“Rather than pitting road users against each other as Judge O’Donohoe has sought to do, we should be encouraging all road users to take greater care of their own road use, and to protect others.” Ahern added.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik subsequently raised the issue in the Dáil (Irish Parliament), for which Taoiseach Micheál Martin described the judge’s comments as “wrong”.
“I reject any stereotyping of cyclists or any categorisation of cyclists. I don’t want to breach any separation of powers, but I’m very clear that any general comment to the effect that it impacts negatively in terms of the perspective on cyclists is wrong. It shouldn’t happen.
“We should be very clear about the importance of cycling and facilitating cyclists and also being very careful in terms of contested space on our roads in terms of making sure that we protect cyclists.” Martin said.
The collision happened at 6am in September 2020 when Giurgila moved out of a bus lane into the path of traffic. The court heard he had not signalled, did not have lights and was seen riding “erratically”. Giurgila’s barrister accepted that there was evidence of contributory blame on the part of his client. However, the court also heard that dash-cam footage from the motorcyclist, Mark Finnegan, showed negligence by failing to reduce his speed to a level where the collision could have been avoided. Judge O’Donohoe concluded Giurgila had been mainly responsible for the collision.
O’Donohoe went on to say that “cyclists have become a nightmare in Dublin”, adding that “you never know with cyclists what they are going to do or anticipate what they are going to do.”
Among those criticising the judge’s remarks in sentencing, the Irish Cycling Campaign said it is “deeply concerned” by the judge’s comments and suggested they “risk normalising hostility toward people who choose to travel by bike”.
“This case should not be used to generalise about cycling in Dublin or elsewhere.” The real and ongoing safety crisis on our roads is reflected in rising fatalities and serious injuries, overwhelmingly linked to motor traffic,” campaign chair Neasa Bheilbigh said.