The credibility of the drink-driving prosecution system was at risk because an independent service for people who want their blood or urine samples tested for court purposes has ended, Judge James McDonnell said yesterday.
His comment came during a case in which two State-funded analysis laboratories produced opposing results for a drink-drive sample.
The Medical Bureau of Road Safety (MBRS), which analyses all blood and urine samples in drink-drive cases, got a reading of 87 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood - 7 mg above the legal driving limit.
However, the Public Analysis Laboratory (PAL), which mainly deals in food analysis but has also provided an independent drink-drive sample analysis service, got a reading of 65 mg - 15 mg below the limit.
The chief technician at the PAL, Mr Hugh Edward Rock, said the PAL was the only place a person could get a sample independently tested and brought to court as evidence. The Dublin laboratory had stopped doing them because they were "too time-consuming" but the Cork and Galway offices still did them. i supplying them with their own sample was so that they could have the opportunity to get it tested. Judge McDonnell said: "If there is no laboratory prepared to do that, then the whole system loses credibility." He dismissed the summons in question.