FG politician opposed to drink-drive law failed to mention HIS court case
A FINE GAEL councillor who was critical of Transport Minister Shane Ross’s drink-driving policies on Prime Time this week had his own colourful brush with the law on the same issue, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Cllr Michael Hegarty was one of a three-man panel who took part in a Prime Time special debate on the role of the rural pub in combating social isolation. It took place in McGrath’s pub, in Ballycotton, East Cork.
But at no point during the discussion did Cllr Hegarty mention his own drink-driving conviction which he successfully appealed in 2013.
During the high-profile case five years ago, the court heard that Mr Hegarty was found to be two times over the driving limit after he sped away from a Garda checkpoint on August 21, 2012. He then abandoned his car at a churchyard, ran off and hid in a bush. After Mr Hegarty emerged from the bush Garda Cillian Barry said he replied: ‘I just panicked – I had a few drinks.’ The Garda testified in court that he detected a smell of alcohol and slurred speech from Mr Hegarty who asked gardaí to move his car as he was a local representative and he would be embarrassed if his constituents saw the vehicle.
He was convicted in Youghal District Court but Mr Hegarty brought a challenge against his conviction to Cork Circuit Criminal Court on the basis he had been unlawfully detained by pursuing gardaí during the incident. He won the appeal and the conviction was overturned.
When contacted by the MoS this week, Cllr Hegarty, who is a former chairman of Cork County Council’s Joint Policing Committee, said: ‘It was a slip that I regret but I have moved on.’ A friend added: ‘It’s important to note he was cleared; he is genuinely regretful and he does wish it didn’t happen. ’
During the Prime Time debate, Cllr Hegarty was speaking on the issue of rural transport and he criticised Shane Ross’s legislation to clamp down on drink drivers. The councillor said that ‘where Shane Ross resides, if he falls out of his own door, he has a bus or a Luas, a taxi, a hackney or even a rickshaw’ to bring him home.
And he claimed that when it came to providing transport such as hackneys ‘there is an onus on Minister Ross to make a grant available to incentivise people’ to provide such a service.
Cllr Hegarty then added: ‘Any of us cannot condone drink-driving or whatever, but when this legislation was introduced there was no thought or consideration given to rural areas to see how they would survive.’
Meanwhile, red-faced bosses at RTÉ have confirmed that they had not been aware of Mr Hegarty’s previous drink-driving difficulties. A spokesperson said: ‘While we were aware that the issue of the recent changes to drink-driving legislation would come up in our discussion, the intended focus was on how alternative means of transport to the private car might be provided in rural areas, since – however much some politicians might desire it – there seems to be no realistic chance of the recent changes to drink-driving legislation being reversed.
‘The Prime Time team was not aware of the court case brought to our attention by the Irish Mail on Sunday.’
However, the station said that the conviction ‘was, as also revealed by you, successfully appealed. Therefore, no conviction now exists’.
They added: ‘Given those circumstances we would not have questioned the panellist in relation to it, had we been aware of the case.’
One minister, speaking off the record, admitted: ‘It does appear strange that Ross is traduced by an individual who, to put it mildly, had questions to answer. Those questions should have been asked, or at least known about.’