A solicitor from Co Louth is seeking a judicial review of a drink driving conviction and believes that if he is successful that it could impact on many other drink driving prosecutions.
Paul Moore, a solicitor in Drogheda, is arguing that because the manufacturers of the Lion Intoxilyzer breath testing machine did not provide him with a hard copy of the software it uses that a conviction was made in the absence of full disclosure and therefore the constitutional rights of the accused person were not upheld.
In the District Court in Drogheda last month David Reynolds Blythe, a senior manager with Lion Laboratories, who manufacture the Lion Intoxylizer 6000I, admitted that the company had not released a hard copy of the software it uses.
At an earlier court Judge Flann Brennan had made an order of disclosure. When pressed on why the software was not disclosed pursuant to that order, Mr Blythe told Alan Doherty, defending, that "the company is adamant it does not disclose software documentation". He also said he believed this was for commercial reasons.
Judge Brennan went on to convict a local motorist who had a breath alcohol reading of 62. The legal limit is 35. He was fined €1,000 and disqualified from driving for one year.
Last week the High Court gave Mr Moore leave to seek an order that would quash the District Court order.