A SLIGO-LEITRIM TD has said that people should be allowed to have “one or two drinks” before getting behind the wheel.
Speaking to Ocean FM, Fianna Fail Deputy Eamon Scanlon claims Ireland’s drink-driving laws are already strict enough.
“One or two drinks, I don’t think, genuinely, will create a problem for most people – I don’t think it would,” he said.
“I think what we’re doing is a bit excessive. Even as we are, the regulations in this country are way more excessive in other European countries.”
Mr. Scanlon hit out at the proposed new regulations, branding them “very wrong”.
The new Road Traffic Bill is aiming to crack down on drink-driving and anyone caught driving with a blood alcohol limit of between 50mg and 80mg per 100ml will be automatically given a three-month ban.
The Sligo-Leitrim representative Eamon Scanlon went on to say that “we have a lot of elderly people living in rural areas, honest, hard-working decent people who never did anything wrong to anybody and wouldn’t do anything wrong, they help their neighbors and everything else.
“For a lot of these people the only place they’ll ever go and the only person they meet except the postman is the local publican, where they can go for a game of cards or whatever.
“And we’re going to make criminals of these people and I think it’s very, very wrong.”
He also said that getting public transport or taxis aren’t viable options for everyone.
Despite this opposition, road safety campaigners have backed Transport Minister Shane Ross’ proposals to introduce mandatory bans for drink driving.
