Government rubbishes talks of breath test U-turn

THE Government has dismissed claims of a U-turn on its own policy of 12 months ago following yesterday’s announcement of compulsory breath testing for drivers involved in collisions.

In a pre-emptive move that came only hours ahead of a Dáil debate on road safety initiated by Fine Gael, the Government said it intended to introduce legislation that would make it mandatory for gardaí to conduct breath tests following all collisions, major or minor.

The breath tests would be subject to overriding medical considerations — for example, if a driver was seriously injured and the priority was urgent medical attention.