Gardaí to begin random breath-testing of drivers near pubs

WIDESPREAD random breath-testing of motorists is still some way off but gardaí are immediately beginning a more limited form of testing in the vicinity of pubs.

After encountering significant legal obstacles, the Department of Transport is still drafting the legislation which would allow random breath-testing.

Transport Minister Martin Cullen is hopeful the proposed legislation will be put before the Dáil in the coming months and passed before the summer recess. The legislation would allow gardaí test randomly at peak periods for drink driving, such as late at night and on weekends, a spokesman for the minister said yesterday.

The original intention was to allow gardaí test randomly at any time of the day or week. But it is understood the Attorney General advised this would be fraught with legal difficulty.

The main obstacle was the question of proportionality versus the individual rights afforded under the Constitution. Proportionality is a legal concept requiring that laws are not excessively powerful in relation to the objectives they are meant to achieve.

The department believes limiting random testing to peak periods would be proportionate and therefore resistant to court challenges.

Meanwhile, a 44-year-old man became the latest road accident victim on Saturday evening. He was a passenger in a car which crashed with a lorry at Kilrane, Rosslare in Co Wexford.

While it will be some time before gardaí are testing motorists on a fully arbitrary basis, it is understood they are embarking immediately on a limited form of random testing near pubs after the Attorney General advised them it was possible to use existing laws to do this.

Yesterday, the Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Garda Traffic Bureau, Eddie Rock, was quoted in a Sunday newspaper as saying: “We have the clarification from the Attorney General in relation to random checkpoints in the vicinity of licensed premises.

"We are issuing instructions to our members, and we will be making the public aware of this.”