Drink-driving limits delayed 18 months

NEW drink-driving limits will be delayed for at least 18 months it was revealed last night as opposition parties accused Transport Minister Noel Dempsey of presiding over a “fiasco”.

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.