Drink-drive limit to be less than a pint of beer

Drink-driving limits are to be reduced to less than a pint of beer next year under new plans to improve road safety by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan.

Mr Brennan says he aims to reduce the drink-driving limit from the current level of 80 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood to 50 milligrams by June next year.

Drinking one pint of beer would put most adults over the proposed new limit.

The Minister also plans to give the Garda extended powers to take breath samples from drivers from early next year, according to his spokesman.

With the new school year beginning today, Mr Brennan revealed that he is planning further measures to increase road safety for children. Plans are well advanced to put flashing warning lights on all school buses, at an estimated cost of Eur 3.5 million.

In addition, the Minister is considering new rules that would require all traffic to stop when children are boarding or alighting from school buses. In parts of the US, this has led to a reduction in accidents involving young children.

Mr Brennan reminded parents transporting children to school from today that they could have penalty points imposed on them unless all front and rear seat passengers are wearing seat belts. The Minister’s proposals come during a remarkable period which has seen no road deaths for over a week. Up to Saturday, 26 people had died on the roads in August, compared to 35 in the same month last year.

The total for the year so far is 234, compared to 261 in 2002, with the fall being widely credited to the introduction of the penalty points system.

Mr Brennan’s latest proposals to increase road safety will be discussed in talks to be held shortly between the Minister, the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice.

"The Minister doesn’t see any sense in standing back from the 50 mg limit any more," Mr Brennan’s spokesman said yesterday.

Ireland, Britain, Italy and Luxembourg are the only EU states where the drink-driving legal limit is 80 mg.

The other member-states operate lower limits and Luxembourg is switching to the 50 mg limit.

At present, gardai must form the opinion that a driver is drunk before they can take a breath sample. But in future, any driver who commits an offence under the Road Traffic Acts - by travelling with a faulty light or parking on a double yellow line, for example - will be liable to be tested.

Although the Garda will have to be provided with up to 1,000 breath testing kits to carry out this work, the new measures do not have significant resource implications, according to the Department of Justice.

The president of the Garda Representative Association, Mr Michael Kirby, said his members had "no problem" with the new measures proposed by the Minister.

The new breath testing powers proposed for gardai represented only a "subtle change" from the powers they currently enjoyed.

"But if they do keep introducing new laws and these require resources, then we do have a question, namely, ‘where is the money going to come from?’," he asked.