Video: Irish politician argues in favour of "careful" drink driving
Danny Healy Rae said those using the pub as a social outlet and who drive home are not posing problems and should not face driving bans.
An Irish politician has argued against a tightening of drink driving laws, saying people consuming small quantities of alcohol were not causing fatal crashes.
Danny Healy Rae TD, from Kerry, was making his case before the Oireachtas Transport Committee today. He was addressing Minister for Transport Shane Ross who wants more automatic motoring bans for drink drivers.
Mr Ross is proposing that drivers found to have blood alcohol contents of between 50mg and 80mg per 100ml should serve a ban. Currently that level of alcohol in a driver’s system carries a sanction of three penalty points and a fine.
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The Government believes the current situation is being interpreted by some sections of society that a certain level of drinking and driving is acceptable.
It believes introducing automatic bans for those just over the legal alcohol limit will help to change driver behaviour as road deaths creep higher and drink driving persists.
However, Mr Healy Rae says the measure will isolate older people for whom a weekly trip to the local pub is their only social outing.
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A publican as well as a politician, he knew people who had "a pint or two" or "three glasses of Guinness" and got into their cars and drove carefully.
He argues road surface and even cutting back hedging should be examined as a means of enhancing safety for drivers, pedestrians and other road users.
“People aren’t allowed to cut their bushes, so (pedestrians) are walking halfways out on the road,” he said.
“And then you have the case where the fella is on his own side of the road after a pint or two or three glasses and some lunatic comes down the road on his own side and runs into him.
“It’s the fella with the pint and the half pint who is blamed.”
Mr Ross responded saying that Mr Healy-Rae’s “blind spot” in the argument was that he did not accept even small levels of alcohol impaired driving performance.
He said he was not interested in attacking rural Ireland. And he accepted poor road quality, black ice and excess speed all caused fatal crashes.
But alcohol was also a factor in many road deaths and he was trying to address that with the new automatic ban.
Danny Healy Rae, Wednesday, April 5th
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