Sense wins out after shameful filibustering

THE voice of cold, sober reason often falls on deaf ears, especially in Dáil Éireann. Two decades ago, when the drink-driving limit was cut in half, a standing army of 10,000 rural publicans marched on Leinster House. So, considering the obduracy and blatant opportunism he was pitted against, Transport Minister Shane Ross deserves considerable credit for being fixed in his position to get his new Road Traffic Bill through.

To date, anyone caught over the limit for the first time does not get a disqualification, but penalty points. The penalty-point option will now be removed. All drink drivers will be put off the road.

Generally speaking, it is better to crawl towards conclusions, but not when it is a matter of life and death. After months of disgraceful delays, in which the canard of a rural-urban divide and special pleading were employed, sense won out. But ignorance put up a tough fight.

Driving over the limit is as dangerous in a city as it is on a country back road, to argue otherwise is arrant nonsense.

RSA chief executive Moyagh Murdock has cited “indisputable evidence” underpinning the need for change. On average, seven to eight people die each year in accidents where lower alcohol levels were involved. This makes the shameful filibustering in the Dáil all the more unforgivable in a context where 80 people have been killed on our roads this year.

Fianna Fáil TD Declan Breathnach clearly had had enough of the time wasting, exclaiming at one point: “We’re listening to nothing, only verbal diarrhoea. The issue of stalling it is absolutely inappropriate.”

Independent TD Danny Healy-Rae was heard shouting after the vote was declared: “This is a sad day for rural Ireland.”

It would have been a far sadder one had it been rejected.