Cork South-West TD Christy O'Sullivan has apologised after he was arrested on suspicion of drink driving over the bank holiday weekend.
The Fianna Fáil TD said he was deeply sorry and embarrassed by his actions. “I had a few pints but I believed I could take them without doing any harm,” he said.
“Unfortunately, this is not the case any more. Drinking and driving is something I take very seriously and I believed I was not over the limit.
“I will now have to await the result of the blood sample I gave and hope that it will not prove positive.
“If it does then I will have to face the consequences of my actions.”
Mr O'Sullivan was stopped at a Garda checkpoint in the Clonakilty district, where he gave a breath sample. Following this, he was taken to a Garda station, where a blood sample was taken.
Minister for Education Batt O'Keefe came to the Cork TD's defence today, saying that Mr O'Sullivan knew he had made a mistake, and had apologised for it.
"He knows himself it isn't appropriate to drink and drive," he told RTE's Morning Ireland. "We should all remember that we are human".
Last summer, Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving after failing two breathalyser tests for gardai. The Kerry North representative, who always maintained his innocence, had consumed three alcoholic drinks before he was stopped at a random breath-test checkpoint in the early hours of April 22nd near his home in the village of Ardfert.
In April 2005, former junior transport minister Jim McDaid was found to be more than three times over the limit after his arrest for driving in the wrong direction on a dual carriageway. He was later fined €750 and banned from driving for two and a half years.
And in November 2003, former FF representative GV Wright was fined €900 and was disqualified from driving for two years for drink driving.
PA