Drink and drug driving crackdown at weekend

A blitz on drink and drug driving will be mounted over the Easter weekend under new Garda powers.

Mandatory roadside drug testing for cannabis, cocaine, opiates and some sedatives will be conducted. New legislation that came into power from midnight allows gardaí carry out roadside checkpoints or mandatory impairment checkpoints to test for the presence of alcohol and drugs. They have 50 mobile testing units and 86 devices installed in stations.

“We’ll have checkpoints in every district throughout the country this weekend,” said assistant Garda commissioner Michael Finn.