Dr. Declan Bedford:

I have had no personal contact with the Garda, either in my role as chairman designate or as a board member. The senior staff in the Medical Bureau of Road Safety have operational meetings with the Garda and are also involved with providing them with training. They meet them then, but that is an executive matter and I have no dealings with the Garda at all. In response to the Deputy's question about the discrepancies in breath testing, our director, Professor Denis Cusack, gave a detailed reply on that matter to the Chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality, Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, either last year or earlier this year. I cannot remember when exactly. We supply all of the necessary supplies to An Garda Síochána, including the mouth pieces and the various other aspects. We had not had to order any in for a while so our staff checked with the Garda as to whether more was needed. It said no, that it had enough. Questions were eventually raised about this, I think originally in 2014 or 2015, and the question of an audit arose. I know that our board staff helped the Garda complete the audit showing that there was a discrepancy.