Courtroom banter on drink driving is appalling
IS there something in the water – or in the beer – in Kerry to explain the lackadaisical attitude to drink driving? Michael Healy Rae has on more than one occasion flown in the face of conventional wisdom about road safety, asking that drink-driving permits be given out in rural areas. The politician-cumbusinessman has also hit out at strict garda enforcement, saying that one or two drinks never hurt anybody. His seemingly light-hearted view of drink driving was echoed again in a courtroom in Kerry when a judge deferred a three-year drink driving ban until December to allow farmer John O’Shea to get his house – and cattle – in order. The 60-year-old bachelor was well over the limit when he got behind the wheel after an afternoon in the pub talking about football. He hit a ditch on the way home so he – and indeed other road users – got away lightly. But the courtroom banter was less about his stupidity and more about his dependence on his car for his livelihood as well as jocular references as to how a wife might come in useful as a chauffeur. Now I’m sure the legal eagles were just having a bit of a joke at Mr O’Shea’s expense and that the ladies who are now forming an orderly line to take his hand in marriage will not take any offense by the unintended sexism. But I should think that the hundreds of families who have sustained tragic losses at the hands of drink drivers will think differently. They might be appalled to see a drink driver being indulged so fondly by the legal system and shown such mercy.