Convictions for drink driving fall by 80 per cent in ten years

The number of convictions for drink driving in Ireland have collapsed over the past 10 years, according to new Courts Service data.

Figures released to Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín show that the number of convictions fell from 11,062 in 2007 to just 2,442 in 2015.

Mr Tóibín said: “That’s just under an 80 per cent fall. Last year, against the trend, there was a marginal increase in the number of people convicted for drink driving. Either drink driving is disappearing from Ireland or its detection is.

“While at the same time the number of Gardaí within the Traffic Corps has crashed. In 2009 there were 1,200 Garda officers in the Traffic Corps. By 2016 this had fallen to less than 681 officers.

“I believe that there is a clear correlation between the collapse in drink driving conviction rates and the collapse in the strength of the Traffic Corps.”

Highlighting the regional variances, Mr Tóibín added: “According to the RSA the counties where alcohol featured most as a contributory factor in collisions were counties Cork (10.6 per cent), Galway (9.7 per cent), Dublin (7.9 per cent) and Donegal (7.6 per cent).

“However, three of these four counties listed here are in the bottom half of the conviction rate list. Indeed Donegal is the county in which you are least likely to be convicted for drink driving. Resources need to be located to where the problem exists.”