Tougher drink-driving laws ‘isolate rural people’
Michael Healy-Rae, who is strongly opposed to a proposal to further reduce permitted alcohol levels for drivers, said people, especially bachelors, were living in terror of losing their driving licences.
Speaking at the Getting A Group conference on drug and alcohol abuse, he said: “This is not about drink, but about social contact, the banter and debate in bars. We’re losing all this social interaction which had been so much part of our culture.”
However, Road Safety Association (RSA) chief executive Noel Brett told delegates even a small amount of alcohol affected driving ability and there was a need for continuing tough measures to tackle the problem in Ireland.
Mr Healy-Rae, whose family are in the pub business, also referred to increased trends whereby people were drinking more alcohol in their homes.
One of the consequences was that, each weekend, people were being stabbed, or sustaining serious injuries, in drink-fuelled rows in their residences.
“This (home stabbings) didn’t happen in the past because people largely drank in the controlled environment of pubs,” he said.
Mr Brett said a recent survey showed three-quarters of drivers were in favour of the proposal to lower the blood/alcohol limit from 80mg to 50mg. Two-thirds supported a zero limit.
Even small amounts of alcohol impaired driving ability and there was evidence from other countries that fatalities were further reduced when the limit was lowered to 50mg, he added.
Mr Brett said there had been a huge drop in the number of road deaths in Ireland – from 640 in 1972 to 279 in 2008 – due to policies of prevention, enforcement and education.
“Some very, very tough and unpopular decisions have been taken by our leaders to help bring this situation about, but tough decisions are still required,” he said.
