A GROUP OF backbench Fianna Fáil TDs has agreed to withdraw a motion from the parliamentary party opposing any reduction in the drink-driving limits pending a meeting with the Minister for Transport tomorrow
Twenty-two Fianna Fáil TDs have backed the motion which calls on Noel Dempsey not to include a proposal to reduce the drink-driving limit from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood down to 50mg of alcohol per 100ml in new road traffic legislation.
Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South) has welcomed Mr Dempsey’s decision to meet the TDs.
“The impact of this change on rural Ireland would be devastating,” Mr McGrath said, “not just on pubs but on people who go out and socialise, do everything right at night by getting a taxi home but then are still over the limit the next morning; 50mg is very low and it would be a killer blow to rural communities.”
Michael Moynihan (Cork North West) urged Mr Dempsey to take “a sensible view” on the matter.
“No one is advocating that people should get behind the wheel of a car drunk but there is a very serious issue of isolation in rural Ireland, particularly among elderly men living on their own, that needs to be addressed and this change in the law could have a serious adverse effect.”
Publicans began lobbying Fianna Fáil TDs earlier this year when Mr Dempsey hinted at a change.
The Vintners Federation of Ireland circulated politicians with a briefing note in which it said that a cut to 50mg would destroy some 5,000 jobs in the pub trade.
However, the VFI became embroiled in a dispute with the Road Safety Authority when it went on to claim that lowering the alcohol limit further would not affect those currently guilty of drink driving since most of them had consumed large quantities of alcohol.
RSA chief executive Noel Brett said Ireland and Britain were the only European countries with an 80mg limit and the VFI was seeking to disregard a “substantial body of scientific and medical research in the majority of other jurisdictions”.