Gardaí face two more scandals: Credibility, resources squandered

The disturbing revelation that An Garda Síochána carried out just half of the drink-driving breath tests that the force’s records suggested it had completed between 2012 and 2016 is another body blow to what remains of the force’s tattered credibility.

Almost two million tests were logged but the force has admitted that fewer than a million were actually carried out. This is another bone-shaking scandal the gardaí, especially its management, can scarcely afford.

That this huge discrepancy, whether created to mislead or a symptom of slapdash record keeping, exists around an exercise designed to save lives by making roads safe from drink drivers moves it from the farcical to the sinister and unacceptable.