Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I welcome the Minister. I acknowledge the improvements in road traffic legislation set out by the Minister in his opening contribution. The achievements are measurable and have been delivered upon.

The purpose of this Bill is to provide for the amendment of existing legislation to permit the early introduction of mandatory alcohol testing of drivers of mechanically propelled vehicles in certain circumstances and the Labour Party welcomes the Bill. The Bill provides for mandatory testing at crash sites. The fast-tracking of these provisions is very important.

I agree with the Minister that a long debate was held on the need for such testing during the passage of the Road Traffic Act 2010. I do not think, therefore, it is necessary to go over that ground again today.

I will play my part in speeding up the legislative process in this House.

The Minister conceded some ground on this issue during the debate on the 2010 Act, when he proposed an amendment providing that such testing shall be mandatory. As he appears to have diluted his position with this Bill, my party will table several amendments on Committee Stage to restore the previous measures. We share the concerns expressed by certain action groups, representatives of which are in the Visitors Gallery, that for the first time in Irish drink driving legislation a garda shall not ask for a breath sample if he or she believes it would be dangerous to the driver's health. Why is this necessary given that the Bill does not state how the driver is to be tested? The section needs to be tidied up somewhat but I am interested in hearing the Minister's response.

In regard to cases where a driver has not been involved in a collision and, therefore, a hospital procedure does not apply, section 2(1)(a) of the Bill dilutes the provisions of the 2010 Act by substituting the provision that a garda shall test with the provision that the test will be carried out unless it is prejudicial to the health of the driver. How can the garda form such an opinion in the absence of advice from a doctor?

While I welcome the Bill, amendments are needed if we are to achieve the agreement previously reached by all sides of the House and conceded by the Minister during passage of the 2010 Act. We can discuss in greater detail our proposals for and concerns about the Bill on Committee Stage. I concur with Senator Ellis in regard to testing for narcotics and I would like to hear the Minister's response on the matter.