Dr. Declan Bedford:

The Medical Bureau of Road Safety has a building of its own on the campus of UCD In Belfield. It was purpose built. It started in 1968. It we have a relationship with UCD in that all our staff are paid via UCD while being a totally independent unit. We have approximately four staff with a few more promised in the near future.

The business is a laboratory examining samples of blood and urine to detect the presence of alcohol and drugs. The main culprit at present is still alcohol. However, drugs are trending upwards. As the Deputy hinted, they are likely to continue to increase if more drug use takes place because a rising tide will bring up all ships. The prevalence of drug taking has been increasing with cannabis and other drugs. We have found an increase in the past two years and it is becoming more serious. Some gardaí on patrol say that it is only a matter of time before drugs and driving becomes more prevalent than drinking and driving. The commonest drug is cannabis.

Canada legalised cannabis use in 2018 and the studies that have been carried out thus far are equivocal. Some studies show an increase in crashes and some do not. However, they have found a 5% increase in cannabis taking since it was legalised. People can go into a designated shop and buy cannabis and, therefore, it is likely to increase. If people smoke cannabis or take other drugs and drive, they will drive until they get caught. The research in Ireland is very clear. I did some of it myself many years ago and it has been followed up since. For men in particular, why do they obey the rules of the road and not speed and drink and drive? It is not from goodwill. The fear of getting caught is the only deterrent. As with everything else we need highly visible enforcement and that works.

As the Deputy has probably noticed, during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020 the number of detections increased. Even though fewer people were driving, there were Garda checkpoints and people were presenting themselves and did not realise they were presenting themselves because Garda checkpoints related to Covid ended up picking up more people. The number of positive samples we got in 2020 was 23% higher than in 2019. While we have not finalised the figures for last year, it looks like it has levelled off at that level now. It is much the same and has not continued to increase.