Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Amendment No. 25 proposes that in addition to the fine or term of imprisonment, a convicted person could be disqualified from driving for a period not exceeding two years. This proposal would mean that a court would have the discretion to apply either of the penalties or the disqualification as it saw fit.

I will refer to the Road Traffic Acts which include a number of provisions to deal with disqualifications that result from convictions for the commission of specific offences. Consequential disqualifications which are an immediate consequence of a conviction are applied to a specific number of serious offences through provisions in the Acts. The courts, however, are free to apply disqualifications in respect of any other traffic offence and such disqualifications are referred to as ancillary disqualifications. Section 12 of the Road Traffic Act 1994 which was subsequently substituted by section 10 of the Road Traffic Act 2002 and amended by the Road Traffic Act 2005 provides current arrangements under which a person may be required to submit to a preliminary roadside breath test and if the person fails to submit to that requirement, he or she will have committed an offence and can therefore be arrested and subsequently be subject to a blood or urine evidential test.

Therefore, a conviction for an offence under section 12 of the 1994 Act does not attract a consequential disqualification. This is because the test to which the section relates does not establish any evidential basis to the effect that the driver has consumed a particular amount of alcohol. However, where the subsequent evidential test establishes that the person has consumed an amount of alcohol that exceeds the limits set in the Acts, a conviction results in an automatic or consequential disqualification. The corollary is that if the person did not have alcohol in his or her system or was not above statutory levels, there would be no disqualification. However, if we accepted this amendment, there would be automatic disqualification for a person who did not agree to the mandatory alcohol test and that is not acceptable.

The approach we are adopting in respect of both preliminary roadside testing and evidential testing will apply equally to the new system as proposed in the Bill and in the case of current arrangements. It is for those reasons that it is not possible to accept these amendments, particularly amendment No. 25.