Drink-driving limits delayed 18 months
The introduction of the lower 50mg cut-off point for drivers has been put off until mid-2011 because evidential breath-testing (EBT) machines used in Garda stations to measure the alcohol in a driver’s breath cannot be recalibrated and need to be replaced at a cost of €800,000.
The Medical Bureau of Road Safety (MBRS), responsible for providing and monitoring this equipment, said the 64 EBT machines need to be upgraded with systems that can test for both the proposed general new limit of 50mg, and the new 20mg limit for novice and professional drivers.
The MBRS also announced it is to train gardaí, from early next year, in roadside impairment techniques to help determine if a driver is under the influence of drugs.
Drivers may be required to perform co-ordination tasks.
The delay comes after road safety campaigners complained the Government had caved into pressure from Fianna Fáil backbenchers and watered-down penalties for driving in contravention of the 50mg limit.
Fine Gael road safety spokesperson Shane McEntee said the Government did not have a proper grip on curbing drink driving.
“This whole affair has been a fiasco from start to finish. Noel Dempsey has failed.
“It’s typical of Minister Dempsey to leap before he looks, and bring in new legislation without checking whether it can be implemented, ” he said.
The number of machines in use is also to rise to 86, while the 1,000 handheld roadside screening devices used by gardaí at mandatory alcohol checkpoints can be recalibrated to read new limits.
The new equipment will require a minimum of six months’ testing to ensure it meets legal, constitutional, forensic and scientific requirements.
Labour transport spokesman Tommy Broughan described Mr Dempsey’s failure to prepare for the delay as “astonishing”.Mr Dempsey said the new laws had to be water-tight.
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