Former minister Dr Jim McDaid has been banned from driving for two years at Naas District Court this afternoon.
The Fianna Fail deputy was also fined €750 after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and drunken driving.
The charges arose after an incident following the Punchestown Festival, when the 56-year-old medical doctor Donegal North East TD was apprehended driving the wrong way down the N7 outside Naas on April 26th this year.
He said there was a responsibility on all people to uphold the law and that, as a legislator, "there is a particular onus on me, which makes this all the worse".
Dr McDaid said he had yet to make a decision on his future but said that he had regrets and remorse over the incident. He added that any decisions he made "would be entirely mine".
The deputy said he had been called a "disgrace" and an "idiot" and that these were appropriate for what he had done. The former minister had previously fronted a Government safe driving campaign.
He told the court that getting behind a wheel in the condition he was in was a disgrace which he would never forget, and would never be allowed to forget.
The court heard that there was 267 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, well over three times the allowable level.
Dr McDaid issued an unreserved apology for what he termed as a serious lapse in behaviour.