Breathalyser tests decision welcomed by road safety groups

Road safety groups have welcomed the Court of Appeal decision on bilingual breathalyser test statements but legislators have been urged to act fast to limit the possibility of potential loopholes arising.

Road Safety Authority chairwoman Liz O'Donnell described the decision to overturn a 2015 High Court judgment requiring gardaí to give the results of drink-driving breath tests in Irish as well as English as "important".

The ruling means clarity has now been provided for future cases, Ms O’Donnell said.

"It is a very welcome and important decision, and it will provide clarity on the issue to the District Courts," she told The Irish Times. "It is very important in the fight against drink-driving which is a major contributory factor to road deaths and injuries in this country every year."

Susan Gray of the Promoting Awareness, Responsibility and Care (Parc) road safety group also commended the ruling, but said "impossible to follow" road traffic legislation must be consolidated to prevent similar confusion and technicalities in the future.

“What it shows up once again is the urgent need to consolidate all the road traffic Acts. Solicitors and barristers are seeing these loopholes . . . and getting clients off time and time again,” she said.

Representatives from Parc met former minister for transport Paschal Donohoe in January 2015, and were told it could take "years" to consolidate all of the State's road traffic Acts, according to Ms Gray.

About 1,400 alleged drink-driving prosecutions have been adjourned due to confusion over breathalyser statements. There are instances where District Court judges decided to strike out or dismiss such cases due to the September 2015 judgment.

Dismissed cases are closed and cannot be revived and, while the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) may be able to reopen some cases struck out, it is thought the majority struck out due to the breathalyser statement loophole are now irretrievable.

High Court ruling

District Court decisions which were appealed to the Circuit Court may also have been affected by the High Court ruling over the last eight months.

Legal sources say that while there were “scores” more drink-driving cases dismissed and struck out between September 2015 and May 2016 compared to the corresponding period in 2014/2015, it is not possible to directly link this to the requirement for bilingual statements as yet.

Parc has asked the authorities to outline the exact number of cases which were dismissed due to the language loophole.

“The struck-out ones can be re-entered on the direction of the DPP, the dismissed ones are gone for good.

“We would like to know how many were dismissed because they’re gone forever,” said Ms Gray.