Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This has been ongoing for 12 months. The Minister initiated the process in January 2017 and it has taken a long time to come to this stage. My position has not changed and I believe the penalty being introduced by the Minister is disproportionate to the offence. I put it on record that I will bring forward an amendment on Report Stage that would see somebody falling within the 50 mg to 80 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood category receiving a €500 fine and five penalty points. The Minister is targeting the wrong bracket in trying to bring down road deaths. That is if automatic disqualification is the deterrent it is claimed to be by the Minister. Based on the figures he supplied in pre-legislative scrutiny, 8,063 people were caught over the legal alcohol limit, and of that number, 617 were in the 50 mg to 80 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood category. The vast majority of the people detected for driving a car over the legal limit had measures in excess of 80 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood. They are the people currently facing an automatic disqualification for breaking the law. I asked the Minister the following questions on a number of occasions but he has not responded in a satisfactory manner. If automatic disqualification is the deterrent he says it is, why were 94% of the people caught in 2016 in a category that brings automatic disqualification? That contrasts with the 6% in the category bringing fixed penalty points and a fine.

I accept the Minister present is not responsible for justice but this is a justice-related matter. On 7 March 2017, I asked the then Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of mandatory alcohol testing checkpoints performed in each of the years between 2012 and 2016, the number of breath tests performed, the number of drivers under the influence and the category, and to provide the information in tabular form. We are now 12 months on and there have been repeated parliamentary questions and follow-up calls to the Minister but we do not have the information. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport is basing what he brings forward today on figures supplied by the Road Safety Authority between 2008 and 2012. Those figures do not take into account the new laws introduced in 2010. If the Minister is serious about reducing fatalities on the roads, why are we not targeting the category of people committing the greater offence? The Minister might look to target the lower category as well but he is ignoring the larger percentage of people who drive and have been caught over the upper limit. That is based on the Minister's figures for 2016.

He is ignoring that category. There is nothing in the legislation to address the category of persons three and four times over the limit. In previous evidence to the committee the Minister stated the overwhelming majority who committed this offence were in that category, yet in this legislation we are providing that those who do the right thing and take a taxi home at night but who drive the following morning and are found to be marginally over the limit will also have their licences revoked. That is disproportionate to the offence committed. During the debate on Second Stage in the Dáil I proposed that a person in the latter category be fined €500 and awarded five penalty points. I propose to table an amendment on Report Stage to that effect, but I would welcome a response now from the Minister on why he is ignoring the category in which the greatest number of deaths have occurred. As I said, 94% of those convicted of this offence in 2016 fell into the over 80 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood category.