A JUDGE has questioned the numbers of drink-driving cases before the district courts which are being referred to the High Court for determination on points of law.
Speaking in Co Tipperary at Borrisokane District Court, Judge Conal Gibbons said the reason there were so many referrals of such cases was because of "the interaction of the middle classes with the criminal justice system".
The judge said he did not see many referrals to the High Court on points of law about "very more important matters about people who are not as well heeled".
Drink-driving cases were continually being referred from the district courts to the High Court and he saw no reason why similar cases should be adjourned in the lower courts pending rulings on test cases before the higher court.
The judge said he did not see it "as a matter of principle" that cases in the district court should be adjourned unless they were referred to the High Court on a constitutional matter.
"The law is as it is until the High Court decides otherwise," he said. "It is an absolute maxim of law and an interpretation of law that the courts apply the law as it exists this day."
Adjourning drink-driving cases in the lower court pending determinations on points of law on test cases in the higher court was a "bad thing", he added.
Figures published by the Courts Service last August showed that 27,836 people came before district judges in 2006 compared with 15,540 in 2005. Many cases were appealed, with numerous defendants questioning the legality of Garda breath-testing procedures.
Just 804 people in 2006 received a prison term or, in juvenile cases, a detention sentence.