Alcohol Action Ireland press release, Wednesday, 22 July 2026
With the number of people killed on Irish roads this year 10% higher than for the same period last year – 100 people compared to 91 for 2025 – Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), the national independent advocate to reduce alcohol harm, will tomorrow (Thursday, 23 July) hold a live webinar, Driving Road Deaths to Zero, that will outline the well-evidenced measures that are available to address road safety issues, with a key area being the role of random breath testing.
Featuring contributions from Velma Burns, Research Manager at the Road Safety Authority (RSA), Leo Lieghio, Vice-President at Irish Road Victims Association (IRVA), and Dr Eoin Fogarty, AAI board member and Emergency Medicine and Retrieval Consultant at Cork University Hospital, the keynote speaker is Dave Cliff, CEO of Global Road Safety Partnership, who will talk about the proven power of random breath testing – lessons from New Zealand and Australia.
AAI CEO Dr Sheila Gilheany said: “Alcohol is involved in over a third of driver deaths on our roads. Almost one in eight drivers (12%) admit to drink driving in the past 12 months. That’s around 424,500 people a year, or 1,160 a day, taking a lethal weapon onto our roads after drinking. And the percentage of people admitting to drink driving is rising, up from 9% in 2021.
“Earlier this week the Medical Bureau of Road Safety reported that alcohol continues to be the single biggest intoxicant found in offending drivers, with the median alcohol level more than three times the legal limit. They also stated that these figures have changed very little over the past decades.
“Rigorous and highly visible enforcement is crucial, and random breath testing is central to this. RSA data shows three in four people deem it ‘unlikely’ or ‘very unlikely’ to be breath tested on a typical journey – and they are right. Ireland has the lowest level of roadside breath testing in the EU. In 2021 just 18 tests per 1,000 inhabitants were carried out here. In France that figure was 109 and the league was topped by Estonia with a rate of 576 tests.
“This needs to change. In other countries ambitious targets for breath testing are set. In Australia for example there is a target that every licensed driver should expect to be tested once annually. Publishing clear targets and assigning resources to ensure they are met is the most effective way of reducing alcohol related deaths on our roads. In Australia their level of driver fatalities with a positive alcohol toxicology is 14% compared with 35% in Ireland.
“This isn’t about asking gardai to just carry out more Mandatory Intoxication Testing (MIT) checkpoints. It’s about looking at the evidence and developing a strategic plan around breath tests, with yearly targets, that is properly resourced. AAI is calling on government to provide funding in the next Budget for increases in strategic breath testing, support for garda administrative duties around breath tests, and support to help increase conviction levels, all alongside a public awareness campaign. One way to fund such an initiative is to increase excise duties, which haven’t been touched since 2014.”
Dave Cliff said: “When New Zealand and Australia introduced mass random breath testing programmes that focussed on highly visible, rigorously enforced, sustained and well publicised operations, there was a major reduction in alcohol-related road trauma. The road policing programme put a major focus on high profile high alcohol hour breath testing that aimed on delivering one breath test per licenced driver per year. When police make random breath testing a strategic priority, it not only reduces the numbers killed and seriously injured in crashes, but it also has the added benefit of reducing other alcohol related crime. The programme has wide community support.”
Dr Eoin Fogarty 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. 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.”
Leo Lieghio said: “Alcohol and driving are simply incompatible. Every person that chooses to drive after drinking puts not only their own life at risk but the lives of everyone else on the road. While attitudes have improved over the years, every death and serious injury caused by drink driving reminds us that there is still more to do. Having lost my own daughter on our roads I know the consequences of one bad decision don’t end at the scene of the crash, but last a lifetime. At the Irish Road Victims Association, we believe that through education, effective enforcement and proven safety measures, these tragedies can be prevented. Our goal is simple, to spare other families the heartbreak that so many have already endured.”
ENDS
NOTES:
Registration for Driving Road Deaths to Zero, which is free, is available here
AAI’s report, Alcohol and Road Safety, is available here
