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Maria Bailey: Swing fall case TD 'wanted to recoup medical bills'

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Maria BaileyImage source, ¸é°ÕÉ
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Maria Bailey has withdrawn her legal action

A Fine Gael TD who initiated a personal injury case against a Dublin hotel after falling from a swing has said she was only concerned about having her medical bills recouped for injuries she sustained.

Maria Bailey was taking a case against the Dean Hotel of Harcourt Street in Dublin.

She has since withdrawn it.

The case related to injuries Ms Bailey alleged she suffered to her head, back and hip.

The alleged incident happened on 10 July 2015.

At that time, Ms Bailey had not been elected as a TD, however she was serving as a councillor on Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.

Ms Bailey told Irish broadcaster ¸é°ÕÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke programme that she was holding a bottle of beer in her hand and was reaching for her friend's bottle of wine when she fell from the swing.

She said she had never been looking for compensation, she just wanted to have her medical bills covered.

In Circuit Court proceedings she accused the hotel of negligence as she claimed the swing was unsupervised at the time of the incident, which happened a year before she was elected to the Dáil (Irish parliament).

Ms Bailey has withdrawn her legal action.

According to the Irish Times, the hotel lodged a full defence of the claim and alleged Ms Bailey had items in both her hands when she sat on the swing.

Ms Bailey said there had been no pressure from Fine Gael for her to withdraw the case.

She said it was "a private matter, it happened a long time ago".