Seanad Report: The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, told the Seanad last night that he hoped to introduce within the next couple of weeks powers to enable gardaí to randomly test motorists for alcohol use.
Speaking in a debate on the operation of the penalty points system, Mr Brennan said that an initiative would be brought in if he could clear some legal issues, to empower gardaí to randomly test car users for alcohol offences.
The Minister said that at present a person could be tested for drink driving only if a garda formed an opinion that that person was under the influence of alcohol.
The requirement to form such an opinion was "highly charged" from a legal point of view.
If the garda formed a wrong opinion or failed to form an opinion, he or she would be in all sorts of difficulties with the judge.
That was one of the reasons why a lot of our drink driving laws were under pressure and why a lot of them were challenged.
"I am proposing to sign in this regulation which means that a garda can test at random in the context of motor offences."
Such an offence could be anything from double parking to parking on double yellow lines, or having a broken tail light or a wiper that did not work.
Any one of these offences which attracted a garda's attention once this regulation had been enacted would allow that garda without having to form an opinion, to randomnly seek a breathe test from the individual concerned.
Minister Brennan said he had been told by the road safety people that such an approach would have a dramatic effect, because the amount of testing for alcohol was severely limited at present and something needed to be done about it.