A Dublin District Court judge has accepted the explanation given by Fine Gael MEP Ms Avril Doyle for her failure to appear before him yesterday.
Judge John Coughlan yesterday issued a bench warrant for the MEP's arrest after she failed to appear in answer to alleged driving offences.
Ms Doyle had arranged for her solicitor to appear in her place because she expected to be in Strasbourg on European Parliament business. But she conceded today that she was in Ireland yesterday after her work finished ahead of schedule.
Ms Doyle's solicitor had admitted that he did not turn up because of a diary error on his part. Mr Andrew Coonan of Coonan, Crawley Solicitors issued a statement last night saying: "No fault attaches to our client, whatsoever, in this regard and this is a matter for which we take full responsibility."
Ms Doyle from Kitestown, Co Wexford and MEP for Leinster, faced charges of careless driving, driving without reasonable consideration and dangerous driving on the M50 motorway at Santry in north Dublin in March 2002.
Her apology was accepted today by Judge Coughlan, who decided not to take the matter further. The hearing on the charges against Ms Doyle have been adjourned. She says she will be contesting the charges.