Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I do not have any evidence, overwhelming or otherwise, to suggest that people involved in serious accidents who are out of their minds with drink are not being tested for alcohol or drugs consumption. The Road Traffic Acts provide that a member of the Garda Síochána may require a person in charge of a mechanically propelled vehicle to provide a preliminary breath specimen where the vehicle is involved in a road collision. Garda discretion with regard to the use of preliminary roadside tests in such circumstances is necessary having regard to possible injuries sustained and I do not propose to alter that.

If we make it mandatory and somebody, for whatever reason, cannot be breathalysed on the road, the case will be thrown out of court and the person will walk away because procedures were not followed. We cannot make it mandatory because it will simply open a Pandora's box of escape routes for everybody. If somebody is unconscious on the side of the road, they patently cannot be given a breath test and if it is a mandatory procedure, the case will be thrown out of court because the procedure set out in law was not properly followed. That might seem bizarre but that is the situation.

The gardaí must have flexibility to deal with this. The power of the gardaí to require a person to provide a breath sample where a collision has taken place already exists and the gardaí certainly exercise it. Given that and the need to maintain Garda discretion in this matter, I ask the Deputy to withdraw the amendment. I remind Deputies that the Road Traffic Acts also place an obligation on a person to provide a blood or urine sample in a hospital. This applies where an event occurs involving a vehicle which results in persons being injured or a person claiming or appearing to have been injured whether the person is admitted to or attends a hospital and a member of the Garda is of the opinion that at the time of the event the person had consumed an intoxicant. An intoxicant includes alcohol and drugs or any combination of alcohol and drugs.

There must be that discretionary base when going into a court case.

See this speech in context