No breath-testing referendum likely

THE Government is set to ignore calls by an Oireachtas committee for a public vote on whether the random breath-testing of drivers should be allowed.

The cross-party Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business yesterday recommended that a referendum be held on the issue. The aim would be to remove any existing constitutional barriers which prevent random breath-testing.

The committee believes such testing should be introduced “as a matter of urgency” to help reduce the carnage on the roads.

The main obstacle preventing the Government from doing so immediately is the question of proportionality versus 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.

It is understood the Attorney General and independent lawyers have told Transport Minister Martin Cullen that giving gardaí the power to random breath-test at any time of the day is a non-starter.

However, the minister is seeking fresh advice from the Attorney General as to whether a more limited form of random breath-testing could be introduced, a spokesman said yesterday.

This would involve gardaí being able to random breath-test at peak times for drink and drug-driving, such as the weekends.

If the Attorney General deemed this constitutional, a referendum would not be necessary, the spokesman said. But in any event, the minister’s focus was not on a referendum, he indicated.

“Our efforts on road safety are clearly laid out in the Government’s Road Safety Strategy 2004-2006, which has been signed up to by all the relevant parties.

“Our immediate focus is on building up the penalty points system by introducing new penalty point measures (and) going further with legislation to allow for more speed cameras.”

He stressed gardaí already had the power to test a motorist if they believed he or she was under the influence of alcohol.

“People are being arrested and charged every day for drink-driving,” he said.

Fine Gael transport spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell agreed, saying calls for a referendum would “only divert attention” from measures which could be introduced immediately.

She said the Government should roll out speed cameras nationwide, increase the number of sanctions which carry penalty points, and ensure more gardaí were on the roads to target dangerous driving.

“The Government would do better to look at the almost total failure of its Road Safety Strategy. The Department of Transport is burying its head in the sand by denying that the strategy has collapsed, even though almost 400 people died on the roads last year,” she said.

Earlier yesterday, the department had trenchantly rejected criticism by the Irish Insurance Federation that the strategy had failed.