Letter to the Editor: Judges must have discretion on penalties for drink driving

The level of intent is generally taken into consideration by the courts when determining the punishment being handed down to somebody who commits a criminal offence. However with mandatory sentencing in the Road Traffic Act this appears not to apply to drink-driving offences.

This means the courts are obliged to apply the same penalty to somebody who is convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol on a boreen less than 3m wide as somebody driving on a national primary route between Cork and Dublin, where the two offenders have the same alcohol readings. This is despite the much greater risk of causing a serious accident leading to serious injury or death, in the case of the offender who chooses to drive on a national primary route, under the influence of alcohol.