PEOPLE IN PUBLIC life who encourage intoxicated individuals to drive over the legal limit are “grossly irresponsible”, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said today.
Speaking at a press briefing on Tispol, the European Police Traffic Network, which has a focus on reducing road deaths, Minister Shatter said he wanted “to be absolutely clear about one particular matter”.
He continued:
There is no question of this Government, or indeed I don’t believe any future government, facilitating individuals drinking in excess of blood alcohol limits.
No one, I believe, in public life should encourage intoxicated individuals over the alcohol limit to drive and place their lives and the lives of others at risk. And I believe to do so is grossly irresponsible.
Destroy lives
He said that reducing fatalities on our roads “must always take precedence over promoting social consumption of alcohol”. Minister Shatter said that people in public life “should relentlessly and repetitively deliver the message that excessive drinking kills, excessive drinking results in serious injury that can destroy the quality of individual lives for the entirety of their lives”.
Adding that public figures “should constantly be on-message on that issue”, he said that this message against drink driving has contributed to what Transport Minister Leo Varadkar referred to as a ‘change of culture’ in Ireland.
That message should not be and cannot be contradicted by individuals seeking self political promotion [sic].
Kerry County councillors
Though he did not specifically mention the situation or people involved, the Minister’s comments came just days after Kerry County Councillors voted in favour of a motion that would allow people in rural Ireland to have ‘two or three’ alcoholic drinks and still drive. The motion was put forward by councillor and publican Danny Healy Rae, who told TheJournal.ie that it was to help people in rural areas who feel isolated and do not have access to public transport.
Noting Ireland’s recent record in reducing fatalities on our roads – from 365 deaths in 2006 to 162 in 2012 – Minister Shatter said that “no one should confuse the message for anyone, be it in urban or indeed in rural Ireland”. He added that there are more fatalities on rural roads than motorways in the Republic of Ireland.
“No one should be under any illusion about the seriousness of this issue,” he said, adding that education must continue on this topc.
Transport Minister Leo Varadkar and Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan echoed Minister Shatter’s comments. Minister Varadkar said that rural isolation is a serious issue, “but the solution to rural isolation is neither alcohol nor drink driving”.
Commissioner Callinan, meanwhile, said that the Garda Siochána fully endorses the message “that if you drink, don’t drive; and if you drive, don’t drink”.
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