Drink-driving cases before the courts must be speeded up to secure prosecutions, the Dáil heard today.
Up to 5,000 cases are currently stuck in a legal logjam due to High Court challenges to the new intoxyliser testing process which replaced the old breath-test bags.
Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton.
A judge in Cork District Court last week dismissed one drink-driving case because over three years had elapsed since the original arrest.
Judge Con O'Leary ruled that too much time had elapsed to expect witnesses like gardai and doctors involved in the proceedings to rely on their notes and not their memory. Up to 300 other court proceedings involving the intoxyliser device in the southern area and thousands more around the country are now at risk of being dismissed.
Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton said the Government had promised to introduce legislation to speed up the delay in suspected drink-drivers going to trial.
"There is an extraordinary lack of urgency on addressing the delay between bringing charges and taking the case to trial," Mr Bruton said.
Green Party leader Trevor Sargent added: "I'm calling for legislation on the matter. We don't want the place overrun with drunk drivers."
Tánaiste Mary Harney said she would raise the matter with Minister for Transport Martin Cullen.
Richard Bruton
Fine Gael later claimed that the rate of drink-driving prosecutions had plummeted by 38 per cent since the current Government first took power in 1997.
Transport spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell warned that thousands of motorists who flouted the drink driving laws will be let off without charge, and may now re-offend without fear of prosecution.
"This legal challenge is a nail in the coffin of the Government's current Road Safety Strategy, which has failed totally to tackle the carnage on the roads," she said.
According to the Fine Gael figures, the conviction rate fell from 58 per cent in 1997 to 36 per cent last year.
PA