The sentencing of former TD Colm Keaveney for driving under the influence of cocaine has been adjourned to next month.
Keaveney had pleaded guilty to the charge at a previous sitting of Tuam District Court and had also admitted to two counts of driving with no insurance.
Keaveney (54), Kilcrevanty, Tuam, Co Galway, was due to be sentenced at the weekly sitting of Tuam District Court on Tuesday morning but the case was adjourned as the resident judge, Judge James Faughnan, who had dealt with the matters in previous sittings, was absent.
Judge Michael Connellan said that as Judge Faughnan had dealt with the case previously, he would adjourn it to a sitting of the court on December 9th when Judge Faughnan would be present.
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Sgt Christy Browne told the court that a probation report had been ordered at a previous sitting of the court and this was now prepared.
Judge Connellan remanded Keaveney on continuing bail.
Keaveney pleaded guilty at Tuam District Court on September 9th to the charge, along with two counts of driving with no insurance.
Judge Faughnan, who ordered a probation report to be prepared ahead of sentencing, observed that the former TD had experienced “a significant fall from grace”.
The case had been adjourned 10 times before Keaveney entered guilty pleas.
Keaveney was first elected to the Dáil as a Labour candidate in 2011. He then became an Independent before joining Fianna Fáil in 2013.
He lost his Dáil seat in 2016 but was elected to Galway County Council as a Fianna Fáil candidate in 2019. He did not seek re-election last year.
Keaveney had been arrested after being stopped at a checkpoint at Cummer near Tuam on June 12th, 2023.
In September, Garda Sgt Christy Browne told Tuam District Court that after Keaveney failed a roadside drug test he was brought to Tuam Garda station where a blood sample tested positive for cocaine.
The court was told that previously, on July 25th, 2024, at Vicar Street, Tuam, Gda Michelle Hanlon had stopped Keaveney for failing to display a valid insurance disc and given him 10 days to provide his certificate of insurance at a station.
He was stopped again for the same offence four days later, on July 29th, 2024, at the N17 Plaza, Farranamartin, Tuam, Co Galway.
The court heard he subsequently produced an invalid certificate and was later arrested by appointment and charged with driving with no insurance.
Sgt Browne told the court that Keaveney had two previous convictions. In July this year, he was fined €250 and banned from driving for four years in relation to an incident in Boyle, Co Roscommon, last October.
On that occasion, he failed to stop after a collision with another vehicle and subsequently failed to provide a blood or urine sample.
Addressing the court in September, defence solicitor Gearóid Geraghty told Judge Faughnan that at the time of the offences, Keaveney had been caring for his parents while suffering from a medical condition and had developed a cocaine addiction.
Mr Geraghty said Keaveney’s parents had died within seven days of each other in recent years and that his client had suffered significantly over a period of time.
