Former minister Jim McDaid has been fined €750 and disqualified from driving for two years after being convicted of drink-driving and dangerous driving.
Dr McDaid, of Thorn Road , Letterkenny, Co Donegal, was fined €250 and disqualified for two years by Judge Murrough Connellan at Naas District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to drink-driving at Ladytown, Naas, Co Kildare, on April 26th.
He was fined €500 and disqualified from driving for two years in relation to a charge of dangerous driving at the same location on the same date.
Two other charges were withdrawn. The court heard that Dr McDaid, who was once minister of state with responsibility for road safety, had driven the wrong way down the old Newbridge road. He was found to have been more than three times over the legal alcohol limit.
Analysis of a blood sample taken showed 267 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.
The court heard that Dr McDaid had spent the day at the races at Punchestown where he had seven glasses of wine. In a statement read to the court he said he had no excuse for his actions. "For me to get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle in my condition was a disgrace. It is something that I will never forget or indeed, regretfully, never be allowed to forget," he said.
Judge Connellan said that it was extremely lucky that no-one had been injured in the incident.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Dr McDaid said he had not decided on his political future and on whether he would run again for Fianna Fáil in Donegal North East. He said he had made some decisions already and that he had more decisions to make.
Dr McDaid said that any decision on his political future would be entirely his own.
He said that he had been called a disgrace and an idiot for what he had done and he accepted these descriptions had been quite right. Dr McDaid said the fact that he had fronted an anti-drink driving campaign while serving as a minister of state at the Department of Transport had made his actions "all the worse".He said he was very remorseful and the remorse meant changing your life to ensure that things did not happen again.
Solicitor for Dr McDaid, Brian Price, said that on the morning of the incident his client had left Donegal at around 6.30am. He had not eaten breakfast as he was due to undergo a dental procedure requiring an anaesthetic.
Mr Price said Dr McDaid had returned to Leinster House after the dental operation. He had felt nauseous and had gone to his office rather than to have something to eat. The court heard that later in the day Dr McDaid had been invited by a friend to go to Punchestown. He had driven to Citywest Hotel where he was picked up and taken to the racecourse. Mr Price said that up to 4.00pm his client drank only water, but that later he was invited to a corporate box. He said Dr McDaid drank between five and seven glasses of wine.
When he returned to the Citywest Hotel, Dr McDaid had taken a taxi back to his hotel in the city. However, he remembered that his change of clothes and toiletries were in his car at Citywest and he asked the taxi to turn around. Mr Price said his client had then made a "tragic mistake" in deciding to drive his own car back to Dublin.
He said that on leaving the hotel Dr McDaid had mistakenly driven south rather than north towards Dublin.