Derek McDowell (Labour)

This is probably the most important section of the Bill and I am sure we will not give the other sections the same treatment. I assume, although I do not know if this is the case, that the logic behind that legal advice was that the inspector would on some rational basis authorise a checkpoint for some particular reason and, therefore, it would not be random in that sense. I assume that is the sort of advice the Minister of State received.

If that is the case, the Bill will not achieve random testing. As the Minister of State said, this section is intended to have a wide and general effect and for the testing to be genuinely random. The section does not require the inspector to have a rational basis on which to set up a checkpoint. We may be falling between two stools in that either the testing is random or it is for a specific purpose. The Minister of State appears to suggest that we have a framework which is intended to suggest that there might be a specific purpose for such testing but we do not require a specific purpose for it. The message we are sending to Garda inspectors throughout the country is that they should use this measure widely.