EX-TD ‘DRUG-DRIVE’ CASE PUT BACK UNTIL SPRING
Hearing lasts 30 seconds
THE drug-driving case against a former TD has been put back to the spring to allow for statements to be furnished to his solicitor.
Serving Galway county councillor Colm Keaveney was not present in Tuam District Court when his case was mentioned in front of Judge James Faughnan.
The hearing lasted just 30 seconds.
Mr Keaveney’s solicitor, Martina Moran, asked for the case to be put back so she could receive statements. Judge Faughnan adjourned the matter until April 9.
One-time Labour and Fianna Fail TD for Galway East Mr Keaveney, 53, has been charged with one count of driving with cocaine in his system.
The offence is alleged to have happened on June 12 last year at Cummer in Tuam, Co Galway.
Mr Keaveney, with an address at Kilcreevanty, is alleged to have driven a vehicle with cocaine in his system and that the concentration of the drug – officially known as Benzoylecgonine – in his blood was greater than the legal threshold of 50 ng/ml.
That alleged offence is contrary to the Road Traffic Act of 2010.
On conviction, that offence at district court level carries a fine of up to €5,000 and a six-month prison sentence, as well as a 12month ban.
Mr Keaveney, who is a former trade union official, was elected as a TD for East Galway on the Labour ticket in the 2011 general election and was also at one stage the party chairman.
He then sat as an independent before he joined Fianna Fail in 2013. He lost his Dail seat in the 2016 General Election. But he stood for Fianna Fail in the 2019 local government elections.