Comedian Tommy Cooper used to brag about the time he was complimented on his driving after finding a note on his car windscreen. It said, “Parking Fine”. Were he to return from the grave, he would soon discover that driving in Ireland is no joke.

“Sometimes you literally take your life in your hands on Irish roads,” Judge Colm Roberts declared on January 16th. “Speed kills.”

He was speaking about the case of Kerry TD Michael Cahill who was caught doing 190km/h on the M8 near Mitchelstown on March 13th last year. Such was the politician’s hurry home to his constituency the day the Dáil rose for a fortnight’s St Patrick’s Day holiday that he drove on for another four or five kilometres after an unmarked chasing garda car switched on its flashing lights for him to stop.

A van driver about to overtake an articulated truck had to pull aside on the motorway to allow Cahill’s Audi Q5 to “pass at speed” after it “aggressively came extremely close behind” it. There is a name for that kind of intimidatory driving. It’s called tailgating. It is an offence warranting three penalty points. Still, it is as common as tarmac on Ireland’s motorways.

His colleagues describe Cahill, a first-time TD, as “a quiet enough fella, understated”. He was fined €500 but his two-year driving disqualification will prove the greater nuisance in navigating the 4½ hour road journey between Leinster House and his home in Rossbeigh, Co Kerry. Despite resigning from the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration – albeit........

© The Irish Times