Council votes to allow rural drink-driving

Kerry councillors were criticised for their “unthinkable” backing for special permits to excuse rural dwellers from nationwide drink-driving limits.

Noel Brett, chief executive of the Road Safety Authority, said the scientific and medical evidence proving that alcohol impairs driving is irrefutable. “On that basis it is unthinkable that we would go back to a system that sought to increase our drink-drive limit,” he added.

Kerry County Council will ask Justice Minister Alan Shatter to issue licences that would allow people living in remote countryside to drive home from their nearest pub “after having two or three drinks on little-used roads driving at very low speeds”.

Coun Danny Healy-Rae, a publican who proposed the motion, claimed it would “greatly benefit” and even prevent suicide and depression among those who were isolated because of more stringent drink-driving legislation.

But Conor Cullen, spokesman for Alcohol Action Ireland, said: “Those in rural areas who may be suffering from isolation will not benefit from putting their lives and the lives of the other members of their community at risk by drinking and driving.”