'Very disappointing': Hundreds of motorists found driving under the influence

Gardaí anticipated that over 5,000 people would have been detected speeding over the last seven days since the St Patrick’s holiday operation was announced at a road safety conference in Killarney.

The number of motorists driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs over the bank holiday weekend was “very disappointing”, according to gardaí. 

Superintendent Liam Geraghty said that while they were awaiting the final figures, it was already clear that there had been in excess of 200 arrests over the last seven days for such offences.

He added that gardaí anticipated that over 5,000 people would have been detected speeding over the last seven days since the St Patrick’s holiday operation was announced at a road safety conference in Killarney.

This was “really disappointing considering the volume of media commentary, public commentary that is going on around safety on our roads, road deaths and road behaviour on our roads even when there was an increased enforcement campaign, that people were still taking that risk to drive and that passengers were getting into cars with some of those individuals as well”, Spt Geraghty told RTÉ's Morning Ireland on Wednesday.

The Superintendent said that while in 2025, gardaí would have detected around 500 people speeding a day, this climbed to over 700 drivers speeding every day over the last weekend. 

“And when you look at some of those speeds, for example, 112 kilometres per hour in a 50 kilometre zone on the R183 in Monaghan, that's motorway speed limits being driven on a small urban road in a built-up area," Spt Geraghty said. 

He added that it was a big concern that, despite the announcement of additional garda checkpoints and enforcement, there was still “such a high volume of people” taking the chance of speeding and driving while under the influence, putting themselves and everybody else at risk on the roads.

"Six people have died on our roads since we last started talking about this last Wednesday in Kerry at the Road Safety Conference," Spt Geraghty said. 

“There seems to be a disconnect somewhere between people who are using our roads and their own view. We will hear people saying that they agree about how terrible it is with what's going on on our roads. But yes, I know the RSA in recent surveys will say that 12 per cent of Irish motorists will admit that they will drive while under the influence of alcohol, 25 per cent or more believe that driving a short distance after drinking is still acceptable. But yet then they call out, saying it's terrible that people are dying on our roads.” 

Spt Geraghty also defended the number of gardaí assigned to roads policing. Some 647 members have been assigned to full-time roles in that scope. 

“That is the highest speciality within An Gardaí Síochána, nearly double any other level of speciality involved in it. But roads policing is also very much supported by every uniform and plainclothes member of An Gardaí Síochána," he said. 

“But the reality is, even if 14,500 members of An Gardaí Síochána were all out on our roads this morning, there will still be thousands of kilometres of roads where there won't be Gardaí visibility. 

"And that's where personal responsibility of the driver comes into it, for them to drive safely, not just for themselves, but for passengers and other road users," he added.