Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I understand where the Minister is coming from in this amendment. We must legislate to require mandatory testing at the scene of an accident, because we owe it to the people who may have been injured in that accident and to the families concerned to ensure that in a subsequent legal case, autopsy or whatever, we are able to establish the facts. The key period following an accident is the hour or two immediately after it when people are in the midst of trauma, frightened and may be injured and in pain. It is a difficult time for a garda to have to insist on a test to establish whether a person has taken too much alcohol. However, we must balance that against the responsibility of the State to ensure we do everything to establish the facts so that as time passes the job of establishing what caused the accident and whether alcohol was involved can be answered with clarity and accuracy.

In that context, I understand the Minister's objective in this provision. Where a person is seriously injured and where a doctor tells the garda that he or she is trying to save that person's life and should not be distracted with a blood or breath test, the doctor's advice must take priority. Nevertheless, the garda must request the doctor or the team of doctors and nurses to facilitate the garda in doing his or her job. This is awkward stuff, as anybody who has been at the scene of an accident will know, but it is an important provision that tightens up the language in this area. It places the primary responsibility with the doctor, which is the correct legal position, but also reaffirms the role of the Garda. I support the amendment.

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