Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the committee, I welcome Ms Moyagh Murdock and Ms Velma Burns to the meeting. I thank them for their opening submissions and I agree with almost everything they said. My belief is that we should have a zero tolerance approach to drink-driving. We heard some outrageous statements about drink-driving in this committee in recent months. The bottom line is that drink-driving is dangerous. It is the root cause of many road deaths, and it should not be tolerated.

First, for the benefit of the committee, will the witnesses again highlight the reason we should have an automatic ban on those caught drink-driving with an alcohol blood level under 80 mg? Second, Ms Murdock mentioned in her opening submission that driving with a blood alcohol concentration of 50 mg to 100 ml increased the risk of a fatal crash by a factor of five. For the benefit of the committee, will she explain the seriousness of that and perhaps give an example?

I agree with Ms Murdock that we have a serious problem with alcohol consumption and driving at levels below 80 mg. Some members of this committee seem to believe we do not have a problem. We have a serious problem. It is important that we realise that one life lost to drink-driving is one too many. If the introduction of this legislation is to save the life of only one person, we will have done a good job.

Do the witnesses believe that more can be done to educate people on the real dangers of drink-driving? Should we should consider introducing a programme at secondary school level to highlight the many dangers of drinking and driving?

Ms Murdock mentioned a public attitudes survey, which showed that 91% of Irish adults support the introduction of mandatory disqualification for drivers who are caught drink-driving with a blood alcohol level of between 51 mg and 100 mg. Will she give the committee more insight into the survey, for example, the other questions that were asked and perhaps a brief outline of the demographics of the respondents? Were they mainly rural or urban dwellers?