INDEPENDENT TD Clare Daly is taking High Court action against the garda commissioner over claims that her arrest for drink driving was deliberately leaked to the media.

Ms Daly filed the motion last Monday and says that details of her arrest were passed on to journalists to discredit her for raising “issues of malpractice within the Garda”.

“This information could only have come from within,” she said on her website.

In her action to the High Court, the left-wing TD is claiming negligence against garda commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan for the leak and the manner of her arrest.

“I was breathalysed but the equipment didn’t register a reading. I was arrested and handcuffed on the side of the road,” she said.

“I objected to being handcuffed… [but] was told by the arresting garda that this was ‘procedure’. I was then brought to the Kilmainham garda station to provide a urine sample.”

On her release, Ms Daly claims that a female garda told her to come back when she was are sober despite having been cleared.

The Garda Ombudsman Commission confirmed to Independent.ie that it was investigating a complaint from Ms Daly but said it could not comment on her case.

The Sunday Times is reporting that she is to be represented by Gareth Noble, who is currently representing Ms Daly and fellow TD Mick Walllace as they contest charges that they unlawfully entered a restricted zone at Shannon airport last July.

Online Editors