NEW LEGISLATION to deal with those driving under the influence of either legal or illegal drugs should be published before Christmas, broadcaster Gay Byrne told an Oireachtas committee yesterday.
He told the Joint Committee on Environment, Transport, Culture and the Gaeltacht that there was no apparatus like a breathalyser to determine if a person was driving under the influence of drugs.
Byrne, who is chairman of the board of the Road Safety Authority, said the new legislation would put both prescription and non-prescription drugs on the same basis as alcohol where a garda could form an opinion that someone was under the influence of drugs which was impairing their driving.
Currently, he said, gardaí had no right to stop a car on the basis the driver might be under the influence of drugs and that would be addressed in the forthcoming Bill.
Byrne also said he felt the Road Safety Authority should have control over speed limits.
“We get more complaints about speed limits than any other single issue and we have no responsibility for them as they are handled by the National Roads Authority and local county councils,” he said.
He said Irish people seemed to believe a speed limit sign indicated a target speed rather than a maximum speed and that culture had to change.