Adjustment to traffic law will permit preliminary breath tests

Road safety in Ireland is like Santa because it disappears when Christmas is over, Fine Gael has claimed.

The party's transport spokesman, Mr Denis Naughten, made the allegation as the Dáil passed legislation to correct an anomaly in last year's Road Traffic Act.

The correction will allow gardaí as part of the Christmas drink-driving campaign to compel drivers to take a preliminary breath test if they have been in a traffic accident or have committed a traffic offence.

An official spotted errors in the Act, which could have been interpreted to mean that a garda might have to actually witness an accident before he or she could take a preliminary breath test.

The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, said the Road Traffic Bill now provided "legal clarity" and would also remove a possible basis for challenge to future prosecutions regarding certain drink-driving offences.

But Mr Naughten criticised the lack of effective testing year round.

"Road safety, breath tests and drink-driving advertisements are as much a part of the Christmas season as Santa Claus. Like Santa, they disappear when Christmas is over," he said.

Mr Brennan said that the level of drink-driving remained "worryingly unacceptable" and the detection of drink-driving showed that the depth of the problem was not diminishing.

There were 11,200 drink-driving offences detected in 2002. Some 90 per cent of blood and urine were above the legal limit, as were 81 per cent of breath specimens.

It is estimated that alcohol is a factor in 33 per cent of fatal accidents. Mr Brennan added: "We cannot definitively say that a reduction in accidents caused by drink-driving has taken place".

Mr Naughten said: "We do not know whether the Garda enforcement campaign, the Minister's pronouncements and the National Safety Council's advertising campaigns are having any impact.

"If the Minister's figures are correct, money has been wasted because those campaigns have failed dismally."

The only way to ensure proper statistics was through the establishment of an independent road accident investigation unit, he said.

"A foreigner observing our traffic behaviour would get the impression that every driver is drunk," according to the Green Party transport spokesman, Mr Eamon Ryan. "With all the traffic weaving, it is quite difficult to distinguish an individual who is driving under the influence of drink."

He called for "comprehensive joined-up thinking with regard to road design, law enforcement and traffic management in general".

Mr Paudge Connolly (Ind) said the bar trade, hotels and other premises that served alcohol should include reminders on till receipts and display discreet signage that random breath testing could occur. Such reminders could contribute "quite handsomely" to a reduction in drink-driving.

Labour's transport spokeswoman, Ms Róisín Shortall, welcomed the campaign, but described it as ironic because the Minister and Garda were telling people the law would be enforced [at Christmas] even though it should be enforced 365 days a year.

Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caolaín (SF) said that addressing the road safety problem had to start in the education system.