Gardaí could catch 90 per cent of drunken drivers if they checked motorists for a 3½-hour period each night, a district judge has claimed.
Judge John Neilan said the vast majority of those who drink and drive do so between 12.30am and 4am and gardaí could "take out" 90 per cent of them if they wished. The judge said he was puzzled by recent national figures which claimed that only one in four drink-driving prosecutions ended in conviction.
In his court district of Tullamore, Edenderry, Mullingar and Longford, there was a conviction rate of "between 98 and 99.5 per cent". He criticised gardaí and the National Safety Council for releasing "misleading information" on conviction rates which were "only encouraging people to go out to drink and drive".
He made his comments when convicting Offaly man Michael Farrell for drink-driving. Garda Pat McGee said he saw the man "driving all over the road" at 3.05am in Tullamore on May 17th.
Farrell was disqualified from driving for two years, fined €750 and had his licence endorsed.