McDaid to ‘accept’ punishment’

DISGRACED former minister Dr Jim McDaid has said he will accept whatever punishment is handed down by the courts after he was arrested for drink driving last Tuesday.

Speaking to Today FM yesterday the popular Donegal North East TD said he deserved to be punished after a five-hour drinking binge led to him driving the wrong way down a Naas dual carriageway.

Afterwards a truck driver who heroically blocked the path of Dr McDaid’s top of the range Volvo told how the politician had been driving very erratically, swerving from side to side.

And the Irish Examiner revealed on Saturday that Dr McDaid had refused two taxis before jumping out of a third to get behind the wheel of his own car.

However, Dr McDaid yesterday told Today FM’s Sam Smyth that he was thankful no one was hurt during the incident. “I just want to say that I am apologising unreservedly for my behaviour on that night. The only thing is that I am thankful that my mother’s daily prayers for me were obviously answered and that no one else was involved and that no one else was hurt,” he said.

“The only person that was hurt is myself. I deserve to be hurt and I deserve to be punished and I await the court case and I’m going to fully accept whatever punishment comes out of that.”

Fianna Fáil Seanad leader Mary O’Rourke yesterday said that questions over whether Dr McDaid should run in the next election were best answered by the man himself.

“He has apologised. Of course he has to take his punishment,” she said. “There’s nobody who can sack him. I was amused and amazed by some of the comments. You cannot sack a person who has been elected by the people,” she said.

Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics, Transport Minister Seamus Brennan said there was “absolutely no excuse” for Tuesday’s events but said there was no talk “at this time” of the Fianna Fáil party moving to sanction Dr McDaid.

However, as speculation increases that Dr McDaid will stand down at the next election, his latest public comments give the opposite impression.

On the day he was arrested the Donegal Democrat ran a story in which Dr McDaid said he had every intention of contesting the next general election.

“As of today, I am fully determined to go ahead and try for the elections,” he said.