The Minister for Justice and Minister for Transport have met to discuss the legal impediments to the introduction of random-breath testing, the Dáil was told today.
Responding to questions from Fine Gael party leader, Enda Kenny, the Taoiseach admitted there were difficulties and that Michael McDowell and Martin Cullen had held a series of meetings seeking a resolution.
Mr Ahern said the ministers were confident there could be a solution and than that stringent enforcement was the only way to address the number of people killed on the roads.
The Taoiseach said he hoped to resolve the issue in proposed legislation for the new road safety authority which was due before the Oireachtas.
Mr Ahern's comments come as the National Safety Council released its pre-Christmas anti-drink drive campaign "Just One" which will be broadcast on television from this evening.
The campaign aims to reinforce the dangers of consuming even one pint of alcohol before driving in a bid to get drivers to change their behaviour.
Speaking at the launch of the new campaign the Minister for Transport, Mr Cullen, said: "The reason that tragedy visits so many using our roads is that some people drive too fast, they overtake when it is clearly unsafe to do so or they decide to drive when they know they've taken alcohol."
He said provisional figures for 2004 showed that more than 12,000 motorists were detected drinking and driving and that in many instances drivers had consumed twice the legal limit.
Mr Cullen said while he and the Minister for Justice were working towards resolving the legal issues hampering the introduction of random-breath testing, "gardaí must continue to pursue drink driving enforcement robustly through these powers already available to them."
