The Government is considering allowing convicted drink-drivers to drive to work.

Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan’s failure to deliver an internal audit report into 1m fake breath tests and fixed-charge notices has been blamed on “considerable difficulties” in gathering facts, several months after the scandal broke.

A Dáil vote on beefing up drink-drive laws has been postponed until the autumn but a number of ministers have expressed concern about plans to take offenders off the roads.

The legal drink-drive limit should be lowered in England and Wales to cut alcohol-related accidents, councils and fire authorities have urged.

England rugby player Danny Cipriani was “shocked” to discover he was over the drink-drive limit, despite having had two espresso martinis and a glass of champagne less than an hour earlier, a court heard.