Results 5,841-5,860 of 26,228 for speaker:Kieran O'Donnell

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: Does Dr. Bedford believe the bureau has adequate resources?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: While everything is relative, does Dr. Bedford regard alcohol or drugs like cannabis and cocaine as the more dangerous in terms of driving?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: In terms of the impact it has on the driver themselves and their capacity to drive.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: I take the point. To go back to Dr. Bedford's thoughts on cannabis, there is a view in many quarters that cannabis has uses for medicinal purposes. Has Dr. Bedford a contrary view on cannabis?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: Dr. Bedford sees no uses for it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: Explain that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: Is that small?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: Is Dr. Bedford surprised it is a small number?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: This is something on which we have to do further work. We will come back to it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: Is there a higher concentration in the tests?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: You can openly smell it. It is quite prevalent.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: I ask Dr. Bedford to explain that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: Is that in other countries?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: On a slightly unrelated point, did the Medical Bureau of Road Safety detect heroine in any of the blood samples it took in drug drive testing?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: So very few of them tested positive.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: I just had a look at one of the statistics in the Medical Bureau of Road Safety annual report for 2020. It states that in 30% of the 4,489 tests it did people had more than one drug in their systems. Some 2,241 tests were positive for one drug but 1,409, over 30%, were positive for two drugs in their systems. I presume that is outside of alcohol.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: Are there any statistics that show where people had both alcohol and drugs in their systems?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: Did the Medical Bureau of Road Safety recommend to the Department that it should increase the fines where there is more than one drug found in a test, be it a combination of drugs or alcohol? Did it recommend the use of interlocks?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: Have they gone into the-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Medical Bureau of Road Safety: Chairperson Designate (25 May 2022)

Kieran O'Donnell: Does Senator Horkan wish to come in?