These amendments related to the practice of using a standard deduction of 17.5% from the recorded breath alcohol content, BAC, reading. The road safety campaign group, PARC, has raised the issue of intoxilyzer machines used in Ireland. It strongly contends that there is a 17.5% reduction inbuilt in the readings, which means the evidential reading used in court could be 20% to 25% lower than the BAC at the time of testing. On Committee Stage I asked whether these deductions would be allowed in the recalibrated machines. The Minister addressed this at length and he forwarded a briefing note to me, which he also sent to Ms Susan Gray, the chairperson of PARC. I am concerned about whether a standardised method is used for these machines across the EU. The Minister outlined the reasoning for the deduction and why it was important in the legal process and so on.

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