Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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We had much discussion here last week and we are waiting for a breakdown of the figures. It is easy to go off on a tangent about other issues but this pre-legislative scrutiny is in respect of the changes to the penalties applying to drivers registering between 51 mg and 80 mg of alcohol in blood. Since the change in October 2010 relating to drivers responsible for accidents who had such readings, the figure of 16 over five years is not broken down per annum.

We do not have a breakdown of that in respect of the years after the law change. There may have been some cases where the law was already in place for a lower limit. That is important in informing debate on this.

Does the delegation agree that sometimes people may unintentionally go over the limit? Such people might set out to have one drink or half a drink but if somebody buys a round, for example, they might end up driving home after having more than they intended to have at the start of the evening. Is that something that is seen on a regular basis?