Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

I strongly agree with the points made on this issue. Shortly before the general election the Taoiseach gave an undertaking to a group in Donegal which had campaigned for mandatory breath testing in the event of an accident. The then Minister for Transport had said shortly before that he had no intention of introducing it so we need to know where the Government stands on the matter.

The comparison has been made with what happens in the UK. Have the Minister or his officials examined the situation there? Why can we not introduce a similar system here?

I generally accept what the Minister says on mandatory roadside alcohol testing and we have spent long enough discussing it. Provision was made in legislation to carry out a breath test on a person whose vehicle was in any way faulty, even if it only had a minor defect such as a rear light that did not work. If something like that can provide the basis on which a person can be breath tested, surely the involvement in an accident, no matter how minor or no matter what the initial view on who is responsible, can provide the basis on which a garda can breath test a driver.

This is more a matter of political will. The Taoiseach has given his undertaking that the political will is there, but does the Minister share that view? Will he take this issue seriously? We know from the statistics on deaths and serious injuries on the roads, that the message still has not got across to people about drinking and driving. This is another way to send a clear message to people. If they are involved in any kind of tip on the road, they should be subjected to breath testing. It would act as a very good deterrent, but sometimes it might not occur to a garda to test if the accident occurred in the middle of the day. It is intolerable and there should be a clear line that where a person is involved in an accident, he or she should be subjected to a mandatory breath test. I do not see the difficulty in introducing it and if the Minister was serious about tackling this, he would accept the amendment.

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