Drink-driving limit slashed

The chairman of the County Cavan branch of the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) is warning that pubs and with them jobs will be lost if the Government proceeds with plans to further slash the drink-driving limit. Jimmy Murray, who's also the proprietor of the Riverfront Hotel in Virginia, told the Anglo-Celt this week that he has never condoned drinking and driving. However, he said that the proposal by the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, to cut the blood alcohol levels permissible for drivers from 80mls to 50mls was a very severe reduction. He said pubs in towns like Virginia need the customers from the rural hinterland to be in a position to socialise and ensure businesses remain open. "I feel that pubs will take a further hammering if this legislation comes into being, and I can see serious implications for jobs. I would be seriously worried about this move at this time," he said. The reduction in the drink driving limit will be included in the new Road Traffic Bill, which the Minister says will be published in the autumn. Under another new provision in the legislation, first time drink driving offenders would get a choice of accepting a heavy fine and six penalty points on their driving licences, or else going to court and facing a driving ban. In a statement, the VFI said they are totally opposed to the proposal. Padraig Criben, CEO of the VHI, said: "This will do nothing to save lives. It will drive people to drink in the isolation of their homes with the associated social problems this brings. The real issue here is speed. It would appear that this is a smokescreen to cover up the non-implementation of the speed camera programme throughout the country." This measure will only serve to criminalise people who may have one drink on their way home or a glass of wine with dinner and will make people in rural areas even more reluctant to leave the house. The VFI also points out that the Road Safety Authority (RSA) report states that "drivers with blood alcohol levels in the range of 50 to 80 display few, if any, of the classic signs and symptoms of intoxication". Jimmy Murray is worried that more and more people will turn to drinking at home and "we all know what the consequences of this can be". When asked about the new proposals for penalising first time drink driving offenders, Mr. Murray said it's hard to know how that will work on the ground, but it appeared to be aimed more at younger drivers. Mr. Murray stated that if the Minister was looking for a revenue collecting avenue, he should have installed the speed cameras right across the country, which he had vowed would happen. He added that nobody wants to see anyone killed on the roads, and he pointed out that speed is a major problem, and accused the Minister of not addressing this issue effectively to date. "Minister Dempsey has said that was going to do a lot of things in the last couple of years and the cameras have not been rolled out across the country. Maybe we should be looking at speed more closely than the drink-driving laws. We know the road fatalities are down - nobody wants to see any deaths on the roads - but we do know that speed is a major problem and he has done nothing about that at the present time," contended Mr. Murray. Fellow Virginia publican Eddie Matthews told The Anglo-Celt: "Pubs are getting it difficult to survive at the moment and if people can't go out and have a drink and get a taxi home and drive to work the next morning without a fear of being done for drunken driving, then a lot of people will be hindered." He emphasised that he was in no way suggesting that people should drink and drive. In fact he said they should get a taxi home but he was concerned that if they attempted to drive to work the next morning, even after a night's sleep, they may still fall foul of a new low reading of 50mls. Man in street view The chairman of the Virginia Development Association, John O'Reilly, who has been involved with Virginia Show for many years and is the current joint treasurer, said that the road deaths had fallen in the last while. Mr. O'Reilly said they should examine a different system of how to penalise a driver, whereby a person could be allowed to use their vehicle for work and penalise them during their socialising hours. "There is nobody condoning drink-driving but I am wondering where would you be in relation to driving the following morning, if the limit is reduced to 50mls. "If you have gone to the trouble and expense of taking a taxi home and went to bed for the night and then the following day attempted to drive, would you be in peril? They are penalising people like that," said Mr. O'Reilly. He said he also heard reports of a priest saying that massgoers taking wine at communion could also risk being over the limit with the new 50mls limit that's being proposed.