I am informed by the Garda authorities that since 1 January 1988 a total of 30 blood samples were found to have been damaged from the time that they were taken from the suspect to the time of reception at the Medical Bureau of Road Safety. Prosecutions were nonetheless instituted under section 49 (1) of the Road Traffic Act, 1961 in 18 of the cases involved and convictions were secured in eight of these cases.
On the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions the particular case referred to in the question is now the subject of an internal Garda investigation by a senior officer outside the Garda District concerned. As this particular case is mentioned in the context of a question which refers generally to samples "having been interfered with", I should explain that the statement above that 30 samples were found to be damaged is not to be taken as carrying any implication that the damage was deliberate, either in the particular case or in the other cases, all of which would have been investigated as a matter of course.
