Public urged to back random breath testing

Irish people must back random breath testing if there is a national referendum on the issue, it was claimed today.

The Government has been warned that the introduction of the road safety measure could be open to legal challenges that it is unconstitutional.

But Mothers Against Drink Driving (Madd) spokesperson Gertie Shields insisted that the right to life must override any other citizen’s right under the Constitution.

The Oireachtas Enterprise Committee will today call on the Government to consider holding a referendum on the issue in order to cut the number of deaths on Irish roads.

Ms Shields, whose 19-year-old daughter Paula was killed by a drunk trucker in north Co Dublin in 1983, said more people will die if the Government waits for definitive legal advice on the issue from the Attorney General instead of holding a referendum.

“No driver has the right to take the life of somebody into their hands when they sit behind the wheel in a drunken state,” she said.

“We need random breath testing to take these people off the roads in the first place. Otherwise you will have clever lawyers exploiting loopholes in the law and getting their clients off.”

The third interim report of the Oireachtas Enterprise Committee on the reform of the Irish insurance industry believes a referendum is required to clarify the law.

It is currently illegal for gardaí to stop motorists at random and breath test them.

They can ask a motorist to take a test only after they have formed an opinion that he or she is driving under the influence of alcohol.

The National Safety Council said the measure could have saved up to 150 of the 411 lives lost on the roads last year because 30% of samples taken from drivers after fatal accidents contained excess alcohol.

“I think it would be the best way to ensure that we can actually get his legislation passed without future challenges and to enable us to try to save between 100-150 lives per annum,” acting NSC head Alan Richardson said.

“This would put the Road Safety Strategy back on track again and would deliver a significant life-saving measure,” he added.

Mr Richardson said that some lawyers believe that random testing could be regarded as repugnant to the Constitution as it may be an infringement of one’s bodily integrity.

The measure may also be challenged on proportionality if it can be proven that one person or a small number of people were purposefully chosen rather than selected at random.

But Mr Richardson told RTE that gardaí had increased drink-driving enforcement in 2005 and 15% more motorists were arrested on suspicion of the offence.