Fine Gael has said Mairead McGuinness acted “in full accordance with the advice of her medical practitioners,” after it emerged that she flew to New Zealand weeks after she said she had sustained “severe and debilitating injuries” in a car crash.
Ms McGuinness, who will be contesting this year’s presidential election as the Fine Gael candidate, also attended a luxury dinner in the days after the crash in which she said had severely injured her neck and back.
Ms McGuinness and her husband Tom were involved in a collision with a car driven by an American tourist in Co Monaghan on September 21st, 2003. Ms McGuinness was a passenger in the car, which was driven by her husband.
The then high-profile agricultural journalist took a damages claim against a Wexford branch of Hertz Rent-A-Car, which had hired out the car to the American tourist.
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The claim was settled in April 2005, by which point Ms McGuinness was a Fine Gael MEP. In her claim, Ms McGuinness said the injuries she had suffered in the crash “interfered with her enjoyment of life and all routine and other activities”. She also described them as “severe and debilitating” injuries.
However, just five days after the crash, on September 26th 2003, Ms McGuinness attended a gala meal at Farmeligh House hosted by celebrity chef Richard Corrigan. Ms McGuinness’s attendance at the event in the days after the crash was first reported last weekend by The Ditch website.
Six weeks after the crash, in November 2003, Ms McGuinness travelled to New Zealand to report on the Irish farming community living there for RTÉ’s Ear to The Ground programme, which she presented at the time alongside her work as a newspaper journalist.
Ms McGuinness was asked via Fine Gael if she could explain her attendance at the dinner and long-distance travel while suffering from severe injuries.
A spokesman for Fine Gael said: “Mairead McGuinness and her husband were travelling in their car when they were involved in a collision with another car in 2003.
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“Ms McGuiness was hurt, underwent medical care and acted in full accordance with the advice of her medical practitioners.
“Ms McGuinness, a well known journalist at the time, got on with her personal and professional life.
“A civil case was settled in 2005.”
The details of Ms McGuinness’s settlement were not made public. Asked about her own case in 2019, after a compensation claim by party colleague Maria Bailey became public, Ms McGuinness said she could not “remember the details of it”.
