Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join Senators Bacik and Mullins in extending my sympathy to Gillian and Ronan Treacy, the parents of Ciarán. We are all appalled by Ciarán's needless death.I join Senator Bacik in mentioning Judge Keenan Johnson, who spoke very eloquently and sensitively about this matter. He imposed as strong a sentence as we might have expected in this country but there is a need to go towards the position in the United Kingdom. We need to treat cases such as this much more seriously. I acknowledge that younger people, for the most part, do not even think about drinking and driving nowadays but, clearly, we still have a way to go because drink driving is occurring. For it to occur once is too much, as illustrated in the case in question.

In the United Kingdom, there is a mandatory period of imprisonment of 14 years where drink driving causes the death of another individual. There is also an unlimited fine in those circumstances, a ban from driving for at least two years - in Portlaoise, the driver was disqualified from driving for 20 years - and an extended driving test before the offender's licence is returned. While I commend Judge Keenan Johnson on his judgment, I believe that in Ireland, in general, we need to move towards a mandatory and more serious sentence for drink driving that causes the death of another individual.