Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was not going to raise this today in this forum. Obviously when we go about producing legislation we need to have facts and figures in front of us. Do we not? The Minister, Deputy Ross, came into this committee as early as February 2017 and he had made comments even before that. In 2016, he gave us a written statement which stated he thought the current legislation on driving with a blood alcohol level between 50 mg and 80 mg was being abused and not functioning properly or playing its part. We went through committee and got no proper clarification. The Garda Síochána says it can produce figures and statistics. Deputy Troy has just proved it can be selective about when it can produce its statistics. An Garda Síochána has had 12 months since I asked my previous question. I tabled a question to the Department of Justice and Equality on 15 May asking for figures on repeat offenders, that is, how many people who were caught innocently over the limit with a blood alcohol level of between 50 mg and 80 mg were caught again. I asked this because the Minister, Deputy Ross, came in here more than 12 months ago and told us the law was being flouted and not being respected or recognised. He told us that there were people being repeatedly caught while innocently over the limit. We are told that these figures are not available. What facts is the Minister working off? We are talking about crashes involving people who have been drinking. From what I can see, if there was a crash out on the road and if there was a bag of empty bottles 4 yd. or 5 yd. away from the vehicle, it would be logged as a crash related to drink-driving. That is way the RSA compiles its figures.