Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It may be that there were other circumstances associated with some of those fatalities and serious injuries. If we are looking at evidence, we should be sure about that evidence. I know that when a fatality occurs, the Garda comes to the scene and a very detailed analysis is done. Gardaí will do co-ordinates to be sure of the exact location, whether it is daylight, if the road is wet, if a motorcyclist is involved and whether the person was wearing a helmet. All of that information is recorded in a systematic way and inputted into the Road Safety Authority statistics.

Looking at alcohol levels on their own, I have a slight concern about that statistic. If we looked at the statistic for a different number of years, it may show a different figure. It is a small enough sample. However, I would like an explanation on that and whether there is the potential for other statistics in that regard. For example, in some categories, and they tend to be professional drivers, people with a blood-alcohol level of 20 mg are being put off the road. The professional driver is far more likely to come up against road checks and be breathalysed because they travel on the road more often. I am questioning that.

Obviously, there needs to be a targeted approach. I was interested to see the statistics on page 30 of the Road Safety Authority's document on motorcyclists. More motorcyclist collisions occurred between 5 p.m and 6 p.m. on a Sunday than at any other time of the day. The targeted approach to apprehending people in terms of road checks must be stressed. How evenly spread are the checkpoint locations over the weekend and during the week? It is all very well having a law but if the law is not enforced or it is enforced in a haphazard way, it will not achieve the intention. People are concerned about being caught going to work in the morning if they have had a drink the night before. They may want to be compliant, and they hope and believe they are compliant, but they could be caught with very low levels of alcohol in their blood and be put off the road. I would like to hear the Minister's views on that. There is a belief that those people were not the original intended target. Are there other reasons for impairment, given the statistics? That is the reason I ask that question.

I spoke to a number of gardaí and former gardaí over the past while about a range of issues, not necessarily about those before this committee. Gardaí in rural areas will tell one about the close relationship they have with the community and part of the reason there may be a flaw in the statistics in that they do not want to upset that relationship with the community. When the work is done on the 1 million tests that did not happen, we will know whether there is a geographic pattern to that but there is no point in having the law if it is not enforced. That will bring it into disrepute.

On another issue, there was a case reported in my local paper recently involving somebody who tested positive for a fairly high blood-alcohol level. The case was thrown out of court because the machine in the Garda station was not calibrated within a defined period. That type of thing drives people nuts because while there is acceptance, and the Minister referred to the level of acceptance regarding the survey that has been done, if a case is brought to court as a result of gardaí doing their work in apprehending the person but the case is thrown out a result of inadequate training or calibration of a machine, that is a problem. I would like the Minister to take a note of that because some sort of regime must be put in place to make sure that does not happen again.

The statistic I referred to is on page 29. A total of 9% of collisions occurred between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., indicating the presence of alcohol the morning after socialising. It may be the case that people take medications at a particular time of the day, and if alcohol is one of the ingredients in the medication, they should not be driving. That may account for something other than the statistic given in this document. That is why there should be some rigour with regard to the kind of circumstances, other than people out socialising, that are likely to account for some of that.

Are any other statistics collected from people when they are breathalysed regarding what medications they might be on? It could be a factor. The data we have to work with must be robust. While I would not question the toxicology tests that the coroner carries out, there are other statistics that merit some consideration.

I know that the doubling of the numbers reported in terms of breathalysing is a matter for the Department of Justice and Equality. We are frequently told that crime rates are falling. If the number of negative tests is inflated, the crime statistics will be skewed and may actually be wrong. The crime statistics upon which we rely are then all open to question. It is not just that a million tests are registered as having been carried out; the problem is that this skews the results as well.