Drink driving

January 01, 2020

Drinks Ireland has been consistent in its opposition to drink-driving. The drinks industry has always supported Road Safety Authority campaigns to tackle drink driving and welcomed the Government’s 2018 Road Traffic Amendment Bill from the Government which will ensure that those convicted of drink-driving will automatically be disqualified from driving.

The drinks industry fully supports the Blood Alcohol Content limits of 50 milligrams (mg) for all drivers and 20 milligrams (mg) for learner, newly qualified drivers (for a period of two years after passing the driving test). In addition, Drinks Ireland fully support the existing practice of random breath testing on Irish roads.

While there has been a welcome cultural shift in recent decades in people’s attitude towards drink driving, the issue persists. According to a 2017 Road Safety Authority report on drink driving, alcohol is a factor in 38% of road fatalities, 29% of all alcohol related collisions involved a driver and 9% of all alcohol related collisions involved a pedestrian.

According to the most recent data from the CSO, drink driving arrests in 2019 went down by 6.7% compared to the previous year.