February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
McDaid, who is a Fianna Fail deputy for the Donegal North East constituency, repeated Monday that he was “apologizing unreservedly” for his behavior last Tuesday night when he drove his car for several miles on the wrong side of the Naas dual carriageway after drinking a considerable amount of alcohol.
A file on the incident has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, and it is expected to take several months before it reaches court.
Speaking on radio, McDaid said: “I am grateful for the amount of support I have received,” he said. “I fully understand the anger among people in this country at what I did.”
The chief executive of Dublin’s City West Hotel, John Glynn, confirmed that he offered McDaid a room for the night. “But he said that he already had a hotel organized in the city center,” Glynn said.
Glynn got one of his staff to call a taxi for him. “Jim went out the hotel front door and left here in a taxi. I know that for certain. However, I know his car was parked down the drive in our car park.”
McDaid said that when he was in the Dail earlier on Tuesday, a friend had called to invite him to travel by helicopter from City West to Punchestown racecourse.
“I drove out to City West and then we traveled to the races together. My friend had a box there and I was offered a glass of white wine,” he recalled.
“In those corporate boxes they just keep topping up your glass,” he said.
Aside from his political woes, McDaid, who is a doctor, may face an ethics probe by the Medical Council.