Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

A pattern appears to be arising in the Department of Transport whereby two Bills have been announced which are not on the programme for Government. This is even more bizarre because we were told there is a constitutional problem in regard to random breath testing, yet we heard the chairman of the transport committee saying on the radio this morning that there was no difficulty all along and the gardaí could have carried out what is being proposed. We must hear the actual legal evidence on the route the Government is proposing because other views have been expressed, supposedly on authoritative advice, yet we are now on a third strand of a course of action. The seriousness of the matter requires absolute clarity so the issue will not get bogged down in some court challenge and that there will be some effect on reducing or eliminating the carnage on our roads.

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