Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If I do not fully explain my thought process it will be alleged that I support drink driving or something else. I wish to explain exactly what my personal concerns are, and they are not the concerns of any lobby group. They are about the lottery effect.

I will explain the Fianna Fáil proposal. If somebody is prone to not obeying the rules of the road, is careless about speed and various other matters and if there is reasonable enforcement, there is a high chance that the person will have over seven penalty points. When one adds five points to that there is a total of 12 and the person will get six months off the road.

If the person is persistently careless, unless the person is very lucky and there is no enforcement, under our proposal that person with seven or more penalty points will end up with twice the length of disqualification. We are trying to protect somebody who in good faith did not realise that they had between 51 and 80 mg per millilitre. As I said, it depends on so many variables. One could have 49 mg per millilitre and one will be fine but if one has 51 one is in trouble. At the low end of that, such as 52 mg per millilitre, one does not realise it. One does not realise, because of how one's metabolism works, that one is still over the limit. Somebody who has never had other driving issues, who has always adhered to speed limits, driven with care and thought he or she was all right could suddenly end up in a situation where he or she cannot do the essentials for which one needs a car in most parts of the country, such as bringing children here and there and getting to work. If I live and work in the city and I am on one of the bus routes I can get the bus. To be unable to drive in rural Ireland is a massive cost. In some cases people would have to pay a driver for three months. That is the problem.

As I said, the person who is careless will have the seven penalty points anyway so that person will be off the road. I am talking about the person with the unblemished record who drove in good faith and did not realise.

If someone goes into a pub and knocks back three or four pints, he or she knows that a risk is being taken and that he or she will be put off the road.