Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has not been able to give me a breakdown by county. I asked the Minister in 2017. That was in the Dublin metropolitan region, but the Minister did not give me any indication of the numbers of drug tests that had taken place outside that area. The point made by the Minister from the Garda report is very valid, that policing must be information and statistics led.

The other major issue that arose in relation to this, and which I also raised with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, was the error in section 11 of the Road Traffic Act 2016 with regard to the powers of gardaí to conduct impairment tests and making it an offence if a person refused to comply. I believe the section was revised in the Road Traffic (Amendment) Act 2018, but it has been noted since that similar changes will be necessary with regard to references in section 12 of the earlier Act around the obligation to provide blood, breath or urine specimens following an arrest, and with regard to section 16. Does this mean there is a lacuna or infirmity once again in road traffic law? I put it to the Minister that we constantly find these lacunae and gaps in road traffic law. Is it the case once again that the Minister should be doing a consolidation, as I have also asked the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Ross, many times-----

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