Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I reassure the Deputy, following the meeting I attended on Monday with senior gardaí involved in traffic management and testing, that it is operational. That is the first point to make. The tests are being done and the specimens are going through, as Professor Cusack outlined at the meeting I attended. That is important. It is operational. I may need to correct the figure for new Garda recruits who are working on the traffic units around the country but I believe 67 extra gardaí are there, in addition to the 10% increase in the numbers attached to the traffic corps. There is a substantial increase, unfortunately, in the detection of drink-driving. It means people are being brought to task and before the courts. The information I have is that it is under way.

The other point, which is very important because it came up before, is that the tender for the new preliminary breath testing equipment is now live. It is hoped that all stages of that process will be completed by early 2018. The new equipment, which is available in the marketplace, both for alcohol and drugs, has the capacity to record the time, GPS location and the number of persons breath tested. It has the capacity to download the information automatically. If one considers the kind of information that came out on alcohol testing, it is a major improvement. I will revert to the Deputy with the exact figures.

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