Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne told delegates at an education conference here yesterday that he had personally stopped two cars for speeding on his journey to Galway.
During his speech Mr Byrne spoke of his wish to bring convicted drunk drivers to the gravesides of their victims. His comment was greeted by shouts of "hear, hear" and a spontaneous round of applause in Galway yesterday.
He was speaking at the annual congress of the Irish Vocational Education Association, the management body representing the country's 33 vocational education committees.
"The greatest frustration the Garda Siochana have at the moment," he said, "is trying to change the mindset of the drunk driver."
"I'm concerned at the lack of progress in affecting the mindset of drunken and dangerous drivers. Do we need something more radical?
"If I could bring people to let them look at the headstone of the people they have killed, maybe that would work - it's the shock value," he said.
"If they met the actual families of the bereaved - they don't meet them in court - if those people talked to the mother of the bereaved . . . we need something extremely radical."
He cited the positive results of a project, entitled "Copping Out", where early school-leavers are taken to visit prisons to see the stark reality of the cells and the claustrophobic surroundings of jail.
"Such projects are seen to have a lasting impression," he continued. "I wish I had similar projects for drunken and dangerous drivers with added facilities for visits to graveyards and bereaved families."
"It's the mindset of drivers, that's what we have to address. It's one of the core areas that we intend pursuing. It's an issue that we have focused in on very much. Perhaps more vigour needs to be put into this whole area."
On the issue of drugs, Commissioner Byrne drew a distinction between the legalisation and the decriminalisation of drugs.
"The decriminalisation of drugs is not something which society should embrace as a core value," he warned.
"The essential element in legalisation would be the controls which would be put in place to allow the use of the drug in question."
He cautioned those who criticise the Garda Siochana for "wasting" resources to seize cannabis worth millions of pounds. The critics "promote a supposed soft drug as being harmless", he said, "and advise Gardai to concentrate on heroin or drugs perceived as being more dangerous".
He cited research which was carried out in the Dublin area during 1996/7, which found that over 50 per cent of hard drug abusers used cannabis as a gateway drug.
"A fact which the proponents of the decriminalising of cannabis do not like to hear," he said.
In Dublin, he said, drugs were responsible for 67 per cent of all detected crimes and for 83 per cent of ordinary burglaries.
Commissioner Byrne paid tribute during his delivery of the Sean Conway Commemorative Lecture to "the vital role" played by teachers and others in the vocational education sector.
"The VEC and the Gardai have an influence in achieving improvements - though there are no quick-fix solutions," he said.
"When I look at the wide role of vocational education at second and third level in adult and continuing education, adult literacy schemes, community training workshops, training centres for travellers, education in prisons, youth services, etc - too numerous to mention - I am very optimistic, personally as Garda Commissioner, about the future."
After the Commissioner spoke about his car journey from Dublin yesterday morning - when he had stopped two cars for speeding - one delegate mischievously asked him if he could tell those at the conference what route he would be taking home.