Random breath tests proposed

TOUGH new garda powers to combat drink driving will have little impact on the overall level of convictions, a legal expert said yesterday.

Transport Minster Seamus Brennan is to introduce legislation to allow gardaí to carry out random drink driving tests if they suspect motorists of committing other, minor traffic infringements.

The Minister resisted pressure by the Institute of Engineers in Ireland for total random breath tests like those operating in other countries. Institute spokesman Paddy Purcell said random tests had dramatically reduced drink driving elsewhere, most notably in Sweden and parts of Australia.

“In Queensland alone the level of drink driving was reduced by 40% in two years when random tests were introduced,” he said.

The new regulation will stop short of this, but the Minister believes it will still achieve the desired result.

Mr Brennan said he had been advised by experts the regulation would have a ‘dramatic effect’ on the current levels of drink driving.

“This will be a weapon for the gardaí and a new deterrent,” he said.

However, according to Gerard McCarthy, a solicitor who has successfully defended dozens of motoring prosecutions, the new regulation is unnecessary and will, in fact, make very little difference.

“The gardaí already have the power to stop motorists for infringements like a broken tail light or defective wiper, anyway. If in the course of this, they observe signs of alcohol consumption, they can perform a breath test and make an arrest. They also frequently stop cars at random when they set up road blocks.”

He stressed, however, that under the 1994 Road Traffic Act, a garda must form a reasonable opinion as to the driver’s capacity to control a vehicle and whether an offence has been committed.

“The important thing to note is that the garda’s opinion has to be validly formed at that stage and that will not change under the new regulation.”

Minister Brennan announced his plans to introduce the measure at the annual general meeting of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) in Dublin.

He also revealed he was considering contracting out the operation of speed cameras to the private sector.

The Minister acknowledged yesterday the requirement that an opinion be formed by a garda was an onerous one and had been the ground on which many convictions were overturned.

According to Mr McCarthy the new regulation is unlikely to change that.