Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said that he always tries to abide by the traffic laws when he is travelling around the country on political business.
He was commenting following a report by Miriam Lord in The Irish Times yesterday which stated that the Taoiseach's cavalcade overtook and passed the car in which he was travelling at the maximum permitted speed in Co Westmeath on Thursday.
Asked by reporters yesterday about the speed at which he had been travelling, Mr Ahern said: "We always try and abide by all the laws because when we're driving around the country it's the guards are with us, and I'm always under the scrutiny of the local guards because they bring us around.
"But I notice Miriam Lord yesterday kept up with me all day, so we weren't going that fast," he said.
Mr Ahern was in Co Westmeath on Thursday to attend a number of functions.
He visited AMSE structural engineers in Moate, opened a new hotel in Kinnegad, and attended a Fianna Fáil dinner in Mullingar.