Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Catherine Murphy for her questions. Although a lot of them are really more appropriate for the Department of Justice and Equality, I will certainly take them on board. We will consider them when we are drafting the legislation. We are not using the statistics to which she is referring for this particular Bill, which is very short. If the Deputy can point out any place where the matter could be relevant for this Bill I would be happy to consider it. I think it is not. While the points the Deputy is making are appropriate and right, I do not think they are relevant to this Bill. We are not depending on those Garda statistics but on others from the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, MBRS, the Road Safety Authority, RSA and coroners' reports. I do not think they are being challenged by anybody at all.

The issue of driving on the morning after was raised by Deputy O'Keeffe. I acknowledge it is a constant cause of difficulty and people feel it is an injustice but nonetheless, they are still impaired. People who are arrested the morning after and found to be above the limit are committing an offence specifically because they are still impaired. Just because they have had a short night's sleep does not mean they are not impaired. I understand 14% of alcohol-related fatal crashes are reported between 6 a.m. and 12 noon. There is plenty of evidence that those people should be picked up, even though they may feel they are in a different condition themselves. The alcohol is still in their blood.

I do not know anything about mouthwashes. I suspect it is not enough to get someone over any limit.