The Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, has said "hard decisions" need to be made about drink-driving, and suggested that a total ban of alcohol consumption by drivers might be desirable.
"The whole question has to be raised, that if you drink should you drive at all?" Mr Byrne said in an interview with The Irish Times.
"What I'm concerned about is the attitude of people. With all the cars parked outside pubs at night you have to ask yourself, are they just having one pint or two pints and then driving home?"
Senior Garda sources last night acknowledged the Government's acceptance of proposals for a licence penalty system and a new breathalyser system. One source said EU laws would probably lead to a lowering of the Irish limit.
Mr Byrne said the high number of arrests for drink-driving this year was a "terrible sign" of social attitudes. "The attitude in relation to drink-driving and the abhorrence people had for it has somewhat dissipated in recent times."
There are waves of outrage occasionally at the numbers killed on the road, but there was a reluctance to make "hard decisions" he said. "My officers are at the coalface. If people had to see accidents in which victims have been mangled they might think differently." Gardai are unable to carry out random checks and drivers may only be tested on suspicion of drink-driving.
"I take a drink myself, but we must continue to emphasise the unsocial aspect and the criminal aspect of drinking and driving," the Commissioner said. Asked if it would be difficult to see politicians supporting such a measure, Mr Byrne said people in authority were "paid to make hard decisions".
Fifty-three of the 255 road deaths this year have been attributed to drinking and driving. In a survey of accidents in a two-year period in Waterford/Kilkenny, more than 60 per cent were linked to alcohol, almost twice the estimated proportion.
No EU country has a zero-alcohol limit, although Denmark, Austria and Scandinavian countries enforce extremely low maximum levels. In some EU countries the limit is 30 mg, slightly more than a third the 80 mg legal limit in Ireland. These countries also have a system of graded penalties depending on the level of alcohol.
Political pressure at European Union level looks set to bring the EU limit down to 50 mgs of alcohol, which would represent one pint, depending on metabolic and other factors, and requiring drivers to avoid drinking, a senior Garda source said.
Mr Byrne also said Garda management would review the overtime budget at the end of the month, and he would discuss it with the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue. Last year £43 million was spend on overtime, much of it on high-visibility policing, such as Operation Dochas. This year's allocation is £27 million.
The question of revising the right to silence for certain categories of crime, to allow courts to draw an inference from the silence of a suspect in custody, would be welcomed by gardai, he said.
On terrorism, Mr Byrne said the main focus of anti-terrorist activity was focused on republican dissident groups. He welcomed the announcement of a Loyalist Volunteer Force ceasefire. "But let's see what happens in the next couple of days, and we have to take it from there."
