Professor Denis Cusack:

A very good question was asked about why do the numbers of blood, urine and breath samples seem so low and one must put that in context. At the roadside more than 200,000 alcohol tests were done. So the Garda are very good at picking up and bringing people to a station and when they do the breath test, it turns out to be positive for alcohol, and usually high positive for alcohol in cases. Similarly, we reckon that there were about 12,000 drug tests, which is a much more complex process at the roadside but, again, they require blood and urine. On the samples coming in, 12,000 drug samples were tested on the side of the road, so the number is quite large. It is a credit to the members of the Garda that they pick up these things.

The Senator asked about technology. One of the actions that we are considering is Alcolocks for when the driver gets into a vehicle. There is a European directive that must be implemented shortly so that within a number of years, all cars must be fitted or be capable of being fitted with alcohol detection and if alcohol is detected, then the car will not start.

Third, it is a limit of speed, not a target. Recently I was in Germany where they have fixed cameras and at another meeting a few hours ago, I made the point that I do not speed but the position there is clear. They tell you where the fixed cameras are coming up and everybody slows down. It is about behaviour.

To answer another question, let us be careful in our analysis of the number of deaths so far. Sadly, we need more information about the fatalities and to learn the contributing factors. As a coroner I made a presentation to the Joint Committee on Justice on 31 May and we must be careful not to prejudge what people may or may not have done in their behaviour. It takes about three months to get toxicology results from the State Laboratory. The results from living drivers and an alcohol test takes about ten days. It takes about two months to analyse drugs as they are much more complex. We must be very careful as we gather information together and this is one of the issues that arose when we spoke to the Minister for Justice and the Minister of State at the Department of Transport last week. We actually said let us get our information first, let us see what is different, if anything, let us target, let us focus and let us communicate. Yes, there are geographical differences as can be seen on page 9 of the 2020 annual report.

We have to be careful in picking out a county. We also are going to look at the issue in terms of population but we have to be careful. We are not targeting young men, Donegal, Kerry or Wexford. Let us get the evidence and focus.