Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

It is not. It is clear that lawyers will drive a coach and four through that provision in the courts. I am not knocking the intention, as I know what the Deputy is trying to achieve. Previously, I have stated how no jurisdiction has taken this matter beyond the police officer having discretion at that moment. That officer would be placed in the position of making a medical decision that he or she is not qualified to make.

To have any chance of sustaining this issue in the courts, discretion must be permitted. If not, the courts will be caught up with questions of what came first, why was the test not taken when it was mandatory, how could a garda have made a judgment concerning medical injuries, is the garda a qualified medical professional and why did the garda make a judgment about a person's medical injuries and force him or her to take a breath test in one case but not another. The matter would be open to all sorts of loopholes. I appreciate what the Deputy is trying to achieve, but it is impossible to give a garda or a police officer in Northern Ireland or elsewhere in the UK this discretion at the scene of a crime.

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