During an interview on Friday, radio presenter Neil Prendeville said alcohol was to blame for his lewd behavior on board an Aer Lingus flight last October, according to the Examiner.

Prendeville, one of Ireland’s leading presenters allegedly exposed himself to a female journalist on the plane and triggered a major incident.

The radio interview, on 96FM in Ireland, was his first since the incident and occurred just three days before Prendeville returns to air after the decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions not to prosecute him for exposing himself during a flight from Heathrow to Cork.

"All through my career I’ve had a very precarious relationship with alcohol and I think that over the last three, maybe four years certainly, a lot more precarious," he said.

Prendeville said that he contemplated suicide after the media fallout from the incident. He told TV3 that but for his children, he would "probably have taken an overdose of tablets."

He criticized the tabloid media further, saying "humanity with some tabloids took a back seat here, it got kicked out of the front of the car, publishing my children’s names and their ages, you know, they are minors."

Prendeville said he hadn't been able to support his family during the five months he was without work at 96FM.

On his return to air on Monday, he said: "I don’t know if this is going to work. I’m willing to give it some months and if it works it works and if it doesn’t, then I’ll go."