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MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT Shane Ross was at St Stephen’s Green in Dublin for the first test of the new cross-city Luas line earlier this summer when a can of Dutch Gold beer was shoved into his hand by a nearby construction worker.
The image was captured by Fine Gael TD Noel Rock, and shared on Twitter with the caption: “It is a day for it to be fair. Bag of cans on the tram.”
Some respondents on Twitter found the image humorous, but others reckoned the minister was sending out the wrong message. Rock was quick to jump in to defend his colleague, pointing out:
Shane is as far as I’m aware a teetotaler in fairness.
Ross is indeed a teetotaler – in fact, the long-serving senator-turned-TD hasn’t taken a drink in three decades.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie in a wide-ranging interview, he said he made a decision to quit as his drinking was beginning to affect his work.
“I was just drinking far too much. I was in my thirties and it was just affecting my life in every way.
I wasn’t an alcoholic, I didn’t go for treatment. I just said one day ‘this is it, I am not going to do this anymore’. And I never had another drink.
Ross, who was first elected as a senator in 1981, was also working as a stockbroker at the time.
“It was affecting all aspects of my life,” he said.
And here in Leinster House, it was a lot different. People were drinking a lot around Leinster House. People would drink during the day, all the time. When you were waiting for a decision, would you go to the Dáil bar or wait around? I was doing all the wrong things.
The minister is now on a mission to take on the Vintners Federation of Ireland (which lobbies on behalf of publicans) and some rural TDs who are fighting his drink-driving Bill.
If introduced, it will mean an automatic driving disqualification for those caught behind the wheel with a blood alcohol level of between 50mg and 80mg per 100ml. At the moment, drivers are just handed down penalty points and a fine.
Vintners chief Padraig Cribben argued earlier this year that Ross’s proposals would not “contribute to saving one life”.
The Bill is due to be debated in the Dáil this autumn, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar calling for all ministers and junior ministers to back the Bill.
While the Cabinet has endorsed changes to drink-driving laws, its passage through the Dáil is unclear as a decision has not yet been made on whether non-Cabinet members of the party will get a free vote on the matter. Essentially, it’s not a done deal, by any means.
Drink-driving
Ross has publically admitted to having driven while over the limit in the past.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Prime Time in April, the minister was asked he had ever driven while over the legal alcohol limit.
“Of course I have,” he told the programme.
You see, I haven’t had a drink for 30 years or so. So it would have been a very long time ago. But of course I have. And I understand those dangers.
Speaking in more detail this week about that time in his life, he said his professional performance was suffering in a number of ways.
I was a stockbroker by day and senator by night almost and stockbroking was long lunches and it was just getting out of hand, so I said one day, ‘no that is it’. So I never drank and drove again and I never drank again.
And while it may not have been uncommon, 30 years ago, for people in professional roles to have a drink or two at lunch – Ross said he was thankful that those habits, for most people, were a thing of the past.
There is a different attitude to drinking in the Dáil too, according to the south Dublin TD. In his decades at Leinster House, he said he’d seen some political careers brought to a premature end.
Quite a lot of them drank themselves out of the Dáil at the time, because they spent too long in the bar and didn’t do their constituency work … people drank themselves out of seats.
Despite not having held a drink in his hand for the last 30 years, the minister said he did see the humour in his Dutch Gold moment.
Someone just handed the Dutch Gold to me. It was really nifty. Somebody just asked me to hold it for a minute and you know how polite you are when the cameras are all around you and I said: ‘yeah fine’. I took it in my hand and then ‘click, click, click’.
Poacher-turned-gamekeeper
While Ross spent years in opposition honing his skills as a critic of the powers-that-be – he now finds himself in Cabinet.
He admits that when he first entered into government with Fine Gael, he saw almost everyone else around the Cabinet table as an adversary.
The initial phase in the government was framed by acrimony. I take the blame for that as much as anybody else. We sat down with Fine Gael, and quite honestly, I was still in the mindset of virtually everybody around the Cabinet table, bar Finian McGrath, is an enemy.
That was a terrible, terrible thing for me to have done.
There I was having negotiated a deal with them, and I saw them as that and they saw me as such. Maybe Finian less so, as he is a much nicer bloke. It was extraordinary.
Sympathising with Fine Gael to a degree, he acknowledged that he didn’t make things easy for them in the early days of government. Things came to a head, he said, in a blazing row with his government colleagues last summer.
“It must have been very difficult for them as we had been in opposition to them and there were some personal animosities. That climaxed in the row that I had last June,” he said.
How was the row resolved?
Ross said there was no “bonding luncheon”. One had been pencilled in, he said – but never materialised.
It was actually his nascent friendship with Enda Kenny – a man he had called a “political corpse” in one of his newspaper columns – that smoothed over the cracks in the fraught relationships within government.
It was a very difficult time. We had very tense meetings that went on till July last year and we really sat down and said, ‘what are we going to have a row about now?’ We didn’t have any comradary off-field.
Then gradually things got better. I can only speak personally, but I started to get on a lot better with Enda [Kenny] after getting on really badly with him, and I take the blame for it. I mean I was very hostile, but I think they were hostile too.
Ross said his friendship with the former Taoiseach developed further after Kenny said he would back his controversial Judicial Appointments Bill.
He was very, very honourable about the Judicial Appointments Bill. I thought it was going to be very difficult despite it being in the programme for government to get it done. I thought they [Fine Gael] would try and dilute it.
Then Enda said to me one day, ‘Look, I am in favour of this. I am going to back you all the way’. And I actually didn’t believe him, I thought he wouldn’t, but he did back it, and so did Frances Fitzgerald.
We now have a Bill that was difficult for Fine Gael to take and he did some interesting things that I never thought he would do to get it through. Then I said this is extraordinary, and I began to trust him and it helped. We were very good friends by the time he left.
So … with his new-found friend gone from the Cabinet table, does he miss Enda Kennny?
“Yes, I do, because he made me laugh a lot.
“Once you get to know him he makes you laugh a lot and that helps enormously. But I get on very well with Leo. Leo has a completely different style and he is very refreshing with his approach.
It is great to have someone of his youth, because he does think differently than the rest of the Cabinet.
TheJournal.ie will be bringing you more tomorrow on Shane Ross’ drink-driving prevention plans and why he thinks TDs with links to pubs should be more up-front.
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“I can’t trust a man who doesn’t drink, because a man who doesn’t drink doesn’t trust himself.”
@stephen kavanagh:
There’s nothing as pure as a reformed whoore.
@stephen kavanagh: I love the gaming machines with flashy lights in the bookies can i be trusted..
@stephen kavanagh: correct Stephen! Absolutely!
@stephen kavanagh: bull shit.
More self indulgent drivel to rehabilitate the credibility of the “Man from Rio”
The electorate will cast their own judgement soon enough!
@Jarlath Murphy: In fairness, Lord Ross will once again top the poll.
@Jarlath Murphy: my god you’re arrogant. Not everything is about you. And a classic line at the end which amounts to “people will vote in a democracy “
@Jarlath Murphy: Men from Rio there were 2 but Kevin Mallon seems to have vanished just like Pat Hickey.
I’m delighted Edna made him laugh as do we the taxpaying eejit’s who fund him in his Ministerial role. Wasn’t it soooo easy for him as both stockbroker / senator roles to give up drink. He saw the gravy train pulling up. He’s got many many options to get around……public transport and expenses not to have to worry about drink driving. Gawd he makes my blood boil and before anyone says I agree with drink driving please take note it’s not the person with two pints in a country pub driving home who kills, it’s the fools who have six or seven and then speed mostly young on their way from the pub to a late nite somewhere. But sure it’s alright because he doesn’t drink nor depend on a simple car to get around.
@Mary Murphy: I’m afraid the statistics might be against you there Mary. Most road deaths are actually in rural/country areas, and young folk nowadays, on average, don’t drink and drive half as much as their parents did.
@Kieran Magennis: Most road deaths are in Donegal and it’s not rushing to mass the sped is for
@Mary Murphy stats please to your incoherent statement
@Mary Murphy: what a idiotic statement. To clarify, you say if he was an alcoholic it was easier to fight it cause he was rich? I dont know if you’re a fake account but you certainly are a stupid one
@Kieran Magennis: you obviously missed the report earlier this week that said young people are drinking and driving in greater numbers
@Ian James Burgess: Increasing yes, but still much lower than for my generation..
Shane Ross,I used to respect him for his understanding of what happened in the crash here never let the establishment get away with anything!But now he has lost those values since he has got into bed with the rest of the “Alliance”.Stepaside Garda Station reopening is a joke.Him and John Halligan have shown their hand.New Politics my Bollox
A very honest response, can’t blame him for that
Not sure why but he has become a hate figure for the media…..They all echo the various negative stories about him with great realise
@John003: It is because he was so vocal as a journalist and in opposition. It was all populist nosnense but he had a following. Then he got into power and was shown up for his bluster as the weakest and most publicity hungry politician we have seen in my generation.
@Paul P O’Sullivan: exactly, hes changed nothing.
@Paul P O’Sullivan: so you want a stubborn, dont take no shit from amyone ,al capone politician? Do you think a politician should have their mind set on every issue and never change?
Every now and then I thought he spoke sense as a journo, now he’s shown up for what he is, opinionated fool who’s got little to no knowledge of what he should do. The guy is a catastrophe waiting to happen, opinions on everything yet knowledge in nothing. Having said that, it’s practically every government ever, it’s just role seems to span from a to z… Who gave that remit. He’s like the Ray D’Arcy of the government!
And now Ross is taking out his personal guilt on the general public, like a real Puritan! As if everyone was as susceptible to such habits as he is!
30 years ago I think everyone drove while over the limit!
Off the drink? What about the time he went on a bender and ended up in rio for no logical reason.
He’s a spoofer and it’s as simple as that
Okay, but you’re not in your thirties any more sp could you please start workimg on the rural transport crisis
Makes Paul Murphy appear sane….
The poor me syndrome by the worst minister ever – I call him the minister for nothing. Bonding with FG. Not needed for him. He was already established as a blueshirt with his mid Atlantic accent.
No harm not drinking but don’t like puritanical drink driving laws making criminals of people – go after the drinks companies not the people. Judicial appointments Bill seems to be a crock too – lay people committees ( appointed by the Government) do the picking and Government still gets final approval- as far as I can see. Used to like SR but ego seems to be taking over.
He clearly wasn’t drinking enough as he still went into politics.
Well done for privatization of our transport to another country sending more money out of our economy an into another’s. Funny tat its his own country he gave it to wa×nker
Dutch? We’d be better off with Dutch from Predator than you
Hi Shane
Just because you didn’t go for treatment doesn’t mean your not an alcoholic.
If your in your 30′s and your drinking is affecting all aspects of your life I’m pretty sure your an alcoholic
The can of Dutch wasn’t from some Luas construction worker (harsh claim!). It was from some lads having the craic.
Proof: https://m.facebook.com/events/137267053514391?view=permalink&id=138914670016296
This goon is making headlines yet will do f*ck all for drink driving. Enforcement is the best way to reduce drink driving. More effective than sentencing as a deterrent. But it costs money. Just like the 19000 people waiting for a camera procedure, money not invested is causing deaths. But what do we see plastered over the news???? , Dublin bus have lost some routes….Who gives a f*ck ? I’m no party gombeen but this country needs a HUGE swing to the left.
@Paul Mc Nulty: I’m aware that you might find a contradiction there.Allow me to clarify. I don’t mean who gives a f#ck exclusively, rather there are many issues far more in need of giving a f#ck to.
What an utter knobhead ……
Another turn coat , no thanks
He’s clarified it, he doesn’t drink- do we have to bang on about it?
He’s such a hypocrite it irritates me. All the rules around drunk driving he’s brought in. Despise him
@Breno Rodgers: He irritates me a bit too Breno, but hard to justify calling him a hypocrite when he’s reformed from what he volunteered he did that long ago?
@Kieran Magennis: It’s very easy for him to reform. He got on the gravy train thirty years ago and he’s finally hit his reward. It’s been very worthwhile for him to give up drink. But he doesn’t have a clue about country living and doesn’t care. And I’m living in Dublin so I can only imagine the death he’s giving to country living jobs and social life in the ass hole of nowhere with his jumped up clueless half glass of beer idea
@Mary Murphy: ah the clueless “they dont get my problems”!
Which is staggering since your post tries to illuminate rural issues but you say you live in dublin and can only “imagine ” what they go through. You’re a moron
I knew this guy was a reformed drunk. Couldn’t get enough and now he want to punish everybody else who was not ad stupid as him. Of course he had the money to throw around three decades ago. He is tight -it damaged his brain and made him act like the clown he is now.
If he doesn’t drink why is he holding a can, and of all alcoholic beverages why would he chose dutch gold?
Now your just a waste of space .. time for a drink
@James Reilly: Hic! Hic! zzzzzzzzzzz!
@Paul Tao: thanks for the link, it puts it in another light
He appears to be suffering from dry drunk syndrome, perhaps he should get treatment!
Dont forget who ross is a force for the top 1% nationally, while hiding behind his constituents short term interests. Every time I see ross the so called ‘transport minister’ its to prop up his and healy reas own ego at the expense of everyone else, while propping up this government’s housing crisis, public services crisis, privatisation of the transport sector, privatisation of our water the bin charges gouging the private bank debt bailouts the free market mantra on health housing and education. The independent Alliance has alot to answer for in this government who will vote for them now?
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