Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

This is the most substantial amendment from the Seanad. Although I am new to this legislation, that is my reading of it. I do not think we will see another amendment later that is more substantial. Essentially, this does away with the option for a garda who does not have a breathalyser when attending a collision of telling the person to go home. It requires the garda to obtain a breathalyser within an hour if possible.

Ironically, this happened to me one night when driving along the canal in Dublin. I was stopped by a garda at about 2.30 a.m. on my way home from a function and for some reason he was convinced I had drink taken, although I had not. He called for an apparatus and it took about 50 minutes to get one from some other part of Dublin. I do not know why I was nervous breathing into it when I had not been drinking, but I was.

I can understand the circumstances covered by this provision. If a garda stops a friend of his in some rural area and does not have a working apparatus in the car, there is a temptation, even if they go back to the Garda station, for the garda to let the driver go. The section provides for mandatory breath testing of a person in control of a car whether or not the garda has an apparatus available at the scene. This removes any ambiguity, which is a good thing.

My only concern is that I do not quite understand why the Minister has not tried to make the section a little clearer. The amendment could simply have deleted the word "may" and replaced it with "shall". The wording is not as clear when the phrase specified in the amendment is removed, and this may cause some confusion. I assume the Office of the Attorney General has approved the change, but to replace the word "may" with the word "shall" would make a very clear statement that the use of the breathalyser apparatus is not optional even if there is a delay between the arrival of the garda at the scene and the arrival of the apparatus. However, it is a good amendment. I can see why it has been introduced and I support it.

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