High court rules in favour of breathalyser

The High Court has paved the way for hundreds of prosecutions in drink-driving cases involving a new police breathalyser.

In a judgment coinciding with the height of a police campaign against drink-driving, the court overruled a challenge to the Lion Intoxilyzer now installed at more than 40 garda stations.

The move followed a claim made by a man charged with drink-driving in Dublin earlier this year that the device had not been properly approved by Ireland’s Medical Bureau of Road Safety and that the onus was on the prosecution to prove it was a tried and tested system.

The High Court action had delayed proceedings in several hundred cases of alleged drink-driving.

They can now go ahead, barring an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Intoxilyzer gives an immediate indication of drivers being over the drink limit, and police have continued to use it pending completion of the legal test.