I'm a law-maker but I was a law-breaker, says Jim

MINISTER Jim Daly has confessed to being a law-breaker in his younger days and drink-driving back in the ’80s.

In an interview in the current edition of Hot Press magazine, the Clonakilty TD said: ‘I wouldn’t be proud of my past in that respect. I’m sure, back in the day, in rural Ireland we took chances that were reckless. 

‘I certainly would have been a bold boy at some stage when it came to drink-driving as a young man down in West Cork. As a lot of people did. I’m going back almost 30 years. Drink driving was acceptable. And I probably grew up in that transitional period where it went from being acceptable to unacceptable.’

Speaking about when he owned and ran a pub in Rosscarbery, when he was 21, he also revealed he had a conviction for ‘selling alcohol after hours. At 10 minutes to one in the morning.’ 

He hit out at the growing nanny state approach to alcohol and said ‘people are becoming allergic to an over regulatory style environment. People shouldn’t be lectured. It’s about awareness and education.’ He also revealed how his elderly father has received abusive hate mail over his controversial decision to support repealing the 8th Amendment

‘My dad has got some vile post – pictures of foetuses. He’s got some hate mail. He’s 87. Church-going. God-fearing. He’s into his religion and all that. But he has no difficulty with my decision; he’s a man of the world and respects that,’ said Deputy Daly.

He also confirmed he has no objection to going into government with Sinn Féin saying the ‘will of the people has to be respected.’