I was too self-centred to be a good father, McDaid admits

Colourful Fianna Fáil TD Jim McDaid yesterday admitted that he was too self-centred to be a good father during his marriage.

The former senior minister and deputy for Donegal North East, appeared on TV3’s The Political Party, with his eldest son Garreth, who is standing as a Green Party candidate in Roscommon-South Leitrim in the forthcoming election.

Dr McDaid, who has a grown-up family but recently became a father again with his partner Siobhan, acknowledged he was absent a lot during the formative years of his children.

He told presenter Ursula Halligan: “I used to like the drink a lot during those formative years, when they were growing up. I do have regrets that I didn’t spend more time with them.

“I did work very hard in the hospital and in general practice, but in my time off I tended to go to the pub and I tended to enjoy myself and I tended to be self-centred, so that time there, in those first 10 formative years I would have a lot of regrets, so it’s good to be given a second chance,” he said.

Dr McDaid said that his drunk-driving conviction was his worst moment in politics because he could not defend it and it was big let down to his family and friends.

“It’s something that I will live with and I deserve to live with. But other than that there there’s been controversies in my life certainly, but that was the one thing that I really regretted and particularly from the family point of view, because it was a dreadful thing to at the time.’’

His son Garreth concurred: “My overwhelming emotion was one of relief that the only life he had screwed up was his own, which was really the important thing.’’

Turning to politics, Jim McDaid argued that the social partnership model urgently needed to be replaced. He strongly questioned the need for a pay increase every year.

“Perhaps we should have a pay freeze for a couple of years,” he said.