Michael Healy-Rae says he was caught off-guard by a cow that attacked him on his farm at the weekend.

The Kerry TD says he is lucky to be alive after his son and a neighbour came to his rescue during the incident.

Mr Healy-Rae was taken to hospital following the attack on Sunday evening.

The TD was released from University Hospital in Cork today with fractured ribs, and says you can never be too careful when working around farm animals.

He said: "It's important to highlight the fact that anybody can make a mistake. I would always consider the idea that I am a cautious person around animals.

"I'd know cross animals from quiet ones, but this was a cow that had actually just calved and she was always very quiet, even after calving she would always be very quiet. But just to show the way that things can happen she got me unawares.

"She got me up against the bars, crushed, and she gave me a good old going over."