Derek McDowell (Labour)

I wanted to explore some of the issues raised by Senator Burke because they are very important, especially the issue of how specific the authorisation needs to be in respect of time and place. At the moment, there is a requirement that specifies an hour and date at which a checkpoint may begin and an hour and date at which it may finish. As the Bill currently stands, there is no restriction on that so it would be possible for a particular inspector to specify that an authorisation could run for two or three weeks, or every Saturday night for the year between 12 a.m. and 3 a.m. There is no specific requirement that a separate authorisation would need to be issued. If an inspector felt that it was reasonable to have a checkpoint close to a pub every Saturday it seems to me, that as currently formulated, it would be possible for the inspector to run off one authorisation to allow that to happen. I do not see any restriction on his or her capacity to do that.

The Bill is also very loose — maybe that is the intention — in defining the place. It actually states "place or places". If there is a concert in Croke Park, is it possible for a local inspector to issue an authorisation saying that the Garda may mount checkpoints in the vicinity of Croke Park? Would that extend to Mountjoy Square? How precise does it have to be?

I am not a member of the Joint Committee on Transport and those who are have an advantage over me. The Minister has chosen to introduce a parallel system of breath testing in addition to the current system. He has not chosen to modify the powers that already exist. He has chosen to add on an additional power which can only be exercised under this authorisation at checkpoints. We need to know how this will work. It seems clear under this section that individuals who are stopped cannot ask the garda for a copy of the authorisation. For example, if I am stopped at Artane roundabout, I do not know whether the garda has the power to exercise his powers under section 4. He may be acting under the Road Traffic Acts and he must therefore have a suspicion that I have taken drink, or he may be acting under an authorisation to set up a checkpoint. The individual being tested has no way of knowing that. In those circumstances, we are open to the possibility that authorisations will be issued post facto. If someone is stopped on the Artane roundabout on a particular evening and tested using the powers under that subsection, the garda can go back to the Garda station later and get an authorisation.

If we restrict the power to test randomly — that seems to be the intention — we need to be clear how it is restricted and we need to have the restrictions enforceable. On the other hand, if we intend that testing should be random, we should not be going about it by creating a different way of doing things. We should simply change the existing powers.