Alcohol Action Ireland press release, Thursday, 18 December 2025
Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), the national independent advocate to reduce alcohol harm, notes the tragic and unacceptable number of people killed on Irish roads so far this year – 181 – has passed the total figure for 2024 and believes that government must take a comprehensive approach to reducing this carnage, including increasing alcohol pricing which is proven to reduce road deaths, increasing the amount of roadside testing, and crucially through updating mandatory drink-drive testing rules for intoxicated patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED).
There has long been a strong link between alcohol and road deaths with 37% of driver fatalities in Ireland showing a positive toxicology for alcohol, while a study in France found that drivers under the influence of alcohol are almost 18 times more likely to be responsible for a fatal accident.
AAI CEO Dr Sheila Gilheany said: “Unfortunately, as we face into the Christmas period we know that intoxicated driving will again pose a significant danger to innocent members of the public on Irish roads. Gardaí consistently point to increased incidents of drink driving during public holidays. Indeed, over Christmas week 2024, 260 people were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
“Government needs to adopt a strategy that considers every aspect of how traffic crashes occur and this obviously includes tackling the scourge of drink driving. The Road Safety Authority’s (RSA) drink driving statistics from December 2025 show that almost 1 in 8 (12%) of Irish motorists have admitted to driving after consuming alcohol in the past 12 months, which is a 20% increase from 2024. Despite the known high level of drink driving, Ireland has the lowest level of road side breath testing in the EU, which government needs to urgently address. In Australia, breath test numbers are standardised by accounting for the number of licence holdersand a target has been set of testing every driver at least once a year, so people know they have a good chance of being caught. More than one-third of driver fatalities in Ireland had been drinking prior to the incident, in Australia that figure is 14%.
“In conjunction with efforts from government, the RSA, and An Garda Síochána, to legislate, raise awareness, and enforce the law, there is scope to more effectively deploy resources to make our roads safer – namely through updating mandatory drink-drive testing rules for intoxicated patients presenting to EDs. Currently, a Garda has to ‘form the opinion’ a driver is intoxicated and then must designate a medical professional to take a specimen, all within a three-hour window. The reality is that a significant amount of time often elapses between an accident occurring and people being attended to, so unfortunately doctors and staff in EDs regularly witness intoxicated patients evading drink-drive testing due to such rigid rules. A simple change in legislation to allow Emergency Medicine doctors collect a specimen without direction by a Garda, which is standard practice in Australia, and an expansion of the time window from 3 hours to 12 hours, is required.”
Dr Eoin Fogarty, Emergency Medicine and Retrieval Consultant at Cork University Hospital, said: “I have witnessed some truly horrific scenes that were the result of drink driving and having to tell someone their loved one has been killed or seriously injured is something I’ve had to do far too often, when more can be done to eradicate it. Drink driving is an ongoing issue that gets worse at Christmas. Unfortunately, in Emergency Departments we regularly see obviously intoxicated people avoid drink-drive testing due to the law as it currently stands. Similarly, people who make the decision to drink drive are allowed back driving immediately after failing a test, yet vehicles are removed from people who drive without tax and insurance. There is no logic in this.”
Dr Gilheany continued: “A well-evidenced approach to tackle drink driving is to increase excise duties on alcohol. Across the EU, it has been shown that a 10% increase in the price of alcohol leads to a 7% reduction in road deaths – for this year to date in Ireland that would be 12 people still alive.
“A key driver of alcohol consumption is its affordability compared to disposable household income. Shop-bought alcohol is around the same price today as it was 20 years ago, meaning that it is now 85% more affordable than in 2003. Even alcohol bought in pubs is 24% more affordable than it was two decades ago. Alcohol excise duties have not changed in more than a decade, meaning their public health benefit has been significantly eroded by inflation. In advance of every Budget AAI calls for at least a 15% rise in excise duties, which would only bring back their value to where they were 10 years ago but which would have a significant impact on multiple alcohol harms including reducing drink driving and, going forward, that duties should be automatically linked to the Consumer Price Index. In addition there must be comprehensive enforcement of current drink driving laws, the introduction of the ‘alcolock’ system and immediate alcohol treatment must be made available to offenders.
“Alcohol is Ireland’s cheapest and most widely available drug, and its harm places a huge burden on government, society and ordinary people. If government is serious about reducing the carnage on our roads then they must do everything in their power to reduce drink driving.”
ENDS
