Drinking And Driving

Sir, - The Garda Commissioner has a question concerning the number of cars parked outside pubs, and whether the drivers confine…

Sir, - The Garda Commissioner has a question concerning the number of cars parked outside pubs, and whether the drivers confine themselves to one or two pints. I have always been puzzled by the same question. Surely it is up to Mr Byrne and his rapidly recovering blue army to find out the answer. His assertion that "drivers may be tested only on suspicion of drink-driving" isn't much of an excuse. What could be more suspicious than drinking all evening and then driving out of a pub car park?

For my money, the lowering of the legal limit is not the issue. It doesn't matter what the limit is if it's not enforced. The last attempt to tighten the rules would suggest that Mr Byrne may wait a long time for a lower limit. On that occasion we saw a spineless climbdown by Brendan Howlin on penalties when faced with a few busloads of rural publicans, all of them on the poverty line. - Yours, etc., Seamus Gallen,

Hazel Lawn,

Dublin 15.