*Cllr Paul Murphy. Photograph: Tom Micks
AN APOLOGY has been issued by Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) for his comments on elderly drivers and criticism of “licences for life”.
At the February meeting of the Ennis Municipal District, Cllr Murphy when defending the bollards and armadillos in Clonroadmmore criticised residents in the area and said the Mayor of the Ennis MD, Cllr Pat Daly (FF) tabled an “unbelievable and regressive” motion seeking their removal.
He stated, Elderly people are not able to deal with it, that it is a bigger issue and that is incompetent driving, them being allowed to drive is a bigger issue, in our country you get a licence for life which is an issue. The motion needs to be withdrawn,” the Clarecastle native commented.
After the comments were covered by The Clare Echo, Cllr Murphy described the report and this writer as being guilty of “shoddy journalism, taking cheap shots and stirring a negative agenda”.
However during The Electoral Chair’s election debate of candidates in the Ennis MD, Cllr Murphy apologised for the comments three months on. He said, “I have apologised to those that I may have offended, the comment about licenses for life it was a wrong use of words, it wasn’t deliberately meant, it was intended at all road users. The point I was trying to make and I will give my own example, I passed my driving test when I was twenty one years of age, I literally have that licence for life, the point is I’m probably not as good of a driver as I was back then, that is the point I was making, I may have used wrong wording but I certainly have apologised to people on the canvass, when I give the explanation must of them have been willing to accept that”.
When it was put to Cllr Murphy that he was given opportunities to clarify and apologise for his remarks over the past three months, he acknowledged, “That is fair enough. I didn’t know which way to go, a hole had been dug of my own making, I just genuinely didn’t know which way to get out of it and I chose to say nothing for the time being”.
