THE SENTENCING OF a former Fianna Fáil TD for driving under the influence of cocaine has been adjourned to next month.

Colm 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, with an address at Kilcrevanty, Tuam, Co Galway, was due to be sentenced at the weekly sitting of Tuam District Court this morning but the case was adjourned as the resident 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 Tuam District Court on 9 December when Judge Faughnan would be present.

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 to appear before Tuam District Court on 9 December.

Keaveney had pleaded guilty in September this year at Tuam District Court to driving under the influence of cocaine and to two counts of driving with no insurance.

The 54-year-old was arrested after being stopped at a checkpoint at Cummer near Tuam on 12 June 2023. 

Sgt. Browne told a previous sitting of the court that Keaveney failed a roadside drug test and was arrested and brought to Tuam Garda station where a blood sample tested positive for cocaine.

The court heard that on 25 July 2024 at Vicar Street, Tuam Garda Michelle Hanlon stopped Keaveney for failing to produce a certificate of insurance on demand.

He was given ten days to supply his certificate to gardai but was stopped again for the same offence four days later on 29 July 2024 at the N17 Plaza, Farranamartin, Tuam.

The court was told that he produced an invalid certificate and was subsequently arrested by appointment and charged with driving with no insurance.

Sgt Browne told the court in September 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 in Co Roscommon last October when Keaveney failed to stop after a collision with another vehicle and subsequently failed to provide a blood or urine sample.

The case in relation to Keaveney’s charge of driving under the influence of cocaine had been adjourned ten times but the former TD pleaded guilty when he appeared before Judge Faughnan at Tuam District Court in September.

Defence solicitor Gearóid Geraghty told Judge Faughnan on that date that Keaveney’s parents had died within seven days of each other in recent years. His client had suffered significantly over a period of time. 

At the time Keaveney was caring for his parents he suffered from a medical condition and developed a cocaine addiction. He subsequently took up a residential place in an addiction treatment centre and remains in aftercare during his ongoing recovery.

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 but did not seek re-election last year.