A coroner's court has heard how efforts were made to save a man and a woman killed by a drunken driver in a road accident last year.
Teresa Smith (50) and Martin Connor (44) were killed in the accident near Tulsk, Co Roscommon, last December.
Vincent McCormack (36) was fined €1,000 and banned from driving for 10 years when he pleaded guilty at Roscommon Circuit Court in October to dangerous driving causing death, and drunken driving.
Ms Smith's sister Mae Murray, who attended yesterday's inquest at Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, has called on the Minister for Justice to introduce mandatory jail terms for drunken drivers.
The Circuit Court decision has since been appealed by the Chief Prosecutions Office to the Court of Criminal Appeal.
The inquest heard evidence that people at the scene of the crash, shortly before 1am, tried to winch the couple's car out of the stream with a four-wheel drive, but they could not take it back up the eight-feet drop.
Ms Smith and Mr Connor both drowned.
The couple had been living together at Hillstreet, Carrick-on-Shannon, for more than two years before their death. Both had been married previously and had grown-up children.
"The car was on its roof and totally submerged in water," Garda Matthew Lyons told the inquest. "A portion of the rear of the vehicle was all that was visible."
McCormack, who was on his way home from a Christmas party, had a blood alcohol level of 131mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. The legal limit is 80mg.
It emerged at the inquest that protective barriers were erected at the spot where Ms Smith's car went off the road within weeks of the accident.
The jury returned a death of asphyxia due to drowning.