Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has described the drink-driving incident involving Jim McDaid TD as a "very serious lapse", but he declined yesterday to say whether Dr McDaid should resign his Dáil seat or be expelled from his party.
However, he pointed out that other politicians who had been found drink-driving in the past had not resigned. "Jim McDaid isn't the first member of Dáil Éireann to find himself in these circumstances," he said.
"If you look across the benches in the House, it's not unprecedented, it hasn't lead to a resignation in the past."
Dr McDaid could not be contacted for further comment yesterday on his statement on Wednesday admitting the offence and apologising for it.
Gardaí have sent a file on the matter to the DPP and, if a case is proceeded with, it may take two months or more to get to court.
A truck driver who said he witnessed Dr McDaid driving dangerously on the wrong side of the Naas dual carriageway said yesterday his " stomach was turning with fright to see this man go down the road". The driver said he ultimately drove ahead of Dr McDaid's car and blocked his path to make him stop before taking his car keys away.
Gardaí later brought the former minister to Naas Garda station where a sample was taken, and a file is now to be sent to the DPP who will decide whether to charge him.
The most recent conviction of a politician for drink-driving was in 2003 when Fianna Fáil TD GV Wright, who was found to be over the limit after his car struck a pedestrian who received serious injuries.
Former deputy Liam Lawlor was convicted for drink-driving in 2000. Other politicians have received similar convictions in the past including Labour's Michael Bell, Independent senators David Norris and Joe O'Toole and former Labour Party leader Ruairí Quinn.
Mr McDowell said yesterday it was "a matter of huge importance that the public be given an example by those in politics, the example of obeying the law.
"The public now is much less tolerant of this kind of behaviour . . . I believe it's something which reflects badly on politics and I think that the law should be upheld."
When ask if he should be expelled by from the Fianna Fáil party he said: "I'm not going to start telling Fianna Fail what to do." If similar events arose in his own party he was unsure what he would do. It was something he hoped he would never have to face in the Progressive Democrats.
"But the fact is that none of us, no political party, lives on the most exalted of moral planes. Every political party is made up of human beings, and all of us from time to time have lapses of some kind or another. This was a very serious lapse, but it's up to him to deal with it."
Mr McDowell did not see the need for a "knee-jerk reaction" involving changing legislation. "What we want to do is tell every motorist, don't drink and don't drive. Enforcement is the issue, not legislation. I think it is a matter of respecting the law and the law being enforced."
The truck driver who said he witnessed the incident, Patrick Walsh, said he pursued Dr McDaid for around three miles after he began driving on the wrong side of the Naas dual carriageway. Mr Walsh told RTÉ's News at One yesterday he was driving behind Dr McDaid as he came to a roundabout and saw his car turn right and take the next exit off the roundabout against the flow of traffic, instead of veering left to go around the normal way .
The driver, who was hauling a 46-foot trailer, rounded the roundabout the normal way and exited to drive along the dual carriageway on the correct side of the road, parallel to Dr McDaid's car. He said he flashed his lights to warn oncoming traffic, and alerted the Garda on his mobile phone.
The car drove for around three miles against the traffic at 25-30 km/h. Mr Walsh drove ahead of Dr McDaid's car, went around the next roundabout and blocked the exit from which Dr McDaid's car would have emerged.