Louth cops inflated test figures

GARDAI in the Louth division over-reported the number of breath tests they carried out over an eight year period by 213 percent, the highest in the Northern region of the force.

The figures, released last week in a report by Assistant Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan into the breath test controversy, found that some Gardaí were making up the figures and in some cases were exaggerating them by as much as 300 percent.

The report’s findings were reached by comparing the number of breath tests recorded on the Pulse system with the number recorded on the test devices called Dragers.

The highest rate in the north of the country was in Louth at 213 percent with the lowest in Cavan/Monaghan at 48 percent. The rate in Donegal was 61 percent and in Sligo/Leitrim the rate was 76 per cent.

The highest rate of discrepancy was the Tipperary division at 385 percent while Kerry had a rate of nine per cent, the lowest in the country.

The assistant commissioner’s report says the number of breath tests carried out on the Drager devices in Louth, for the period between 2009 and 2017 is 17,913, but the number of tests reported to Pulse was 56,077, a difference of 213 percent.

The report notes that Louth is the only division in the Northern region where the discrepancies between the number of breath tests recorded on Drager devices and the number on Pulse was more than 100%.

It is also stated that the number of checkpoints in Louth, carried out between 2010 and 2016, increased by just one percent, from 1052 to 1061, while the number of personnel of Garda rank was actually down by three percent from 254 to 246 over the same period.

And the average checkpoint length has increased from 22 minutes in 2010 to over 29 minutes in 2016. These figures were examined in an effort to explain how the discrepancies arose.