An Garda Síochána

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 March 2022

Tuesday, 1 March 2022

Questions (576)

Peadar Tóibín

Question:

576. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Justice the number of roadside drink driving checks that have been put in place in each county for each of the past five years; and the number of prosecutions that were imposed in each county in the past five years. [10952/22]

Written answers

Minister for Justice

As the Deputy will be aware, under the Garda Síochána Act 2005, the Garda Commissioner is responsible by law for the management and administration of An Garda Síochána, including the enforcement of road traffic legislation. As Minister, I have no direct role in these matters.

The below table, furnished to me by the Garda authorities, provides a yearly breakdown per Garda division of the number of Mandatory Intoxication Testing Checkpoints carried out for each of the past five years.

Division	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Cavan/Monaghan	2541	2034	2600	1923	823
Clare	4810	3298	2307	2744	2876
Cork City	6747	5186	3625	2004	2806
Cork North	7788	5556	6660	5949	5105
Cork West	7135	5120	5130	2885	4435
D.M.R. Eastern	594	563	603	165	168
D.M.R. North Central	440	558	648	357	254
D.M.R. Northern	648	397	575	302	535
D.M.R. South Central	549	408	282	108	127
D.M.R. Southern	584	519	562	843	689
D.M.R. Western	1309	790	969	632	560
Donegal	2416	2111	3100	969	2706
Galway	5494	4222	4652	1448	1265
Kerry	3447	2733	2722	2014	2782
Kildare	2879	2324	2220	834	1122
Kilkenny/Carlow	1504	1352	1326	700	943
Laois/Offaly	2769	2136	2183	800	652
Limerick	4506	5354	4282	2790	3227
Louth	1817	1543	1669	762	187
Mayo	2692	1988	1669	1541	1387
Meath	1181	1491	1440	577	1231
Roscommon/Longford	1610	2279	1335	1090	1534
Sligo/Leitrim	1355	1782	2146	1758	1461
Tipperary	5632	4724	4474	1544	2737
Waterford	1687	1582	1853	1619	1614
Westmeath	1223	1455	1335	413	805
Wexford	1936	2102	1925	862	814
Wicklow	1297	1552	1678	631	464
Total	76590	65159	63970	38264	43309

The Courts Service has also advised that courts statistics are not compiled in such a way as to provide the information sought by the Deputy and that they are unable to provide any material on prosecutions following on from road side checks. 

The below table, furnished to me by the Garda authorities, provides the number of detections for drink-driving offences broken down yearly per Garda division for each of the past five years.

Division	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Cavan/Monaghan	362	308	298	236	221
Clare	162	133	106	99	75
Cork City	309	255	227	186	173
Cork North	277	257	220	178	148
Cork West	191	169	165	116	86
D.M.R. Eastern	116	110	97	95	79
D.M.R. North Central	141	122	131	107	95
D.M.R. Northern	285	278	258	256	216
D.M.R. South Central	126	126	86	98	79
D.M.R. Southern	193	182	172	187	129
D.M.R. Western	339	259	320	297	230
Donegal	348	290	338	201	208
Galway	419	342	336	280	228
Kerry	260	234	230	132	144
Kildare	317	356	269	175	204
Kilkenny/Carlow	217	186	190	131	101
Laois/Offaly	249	205	210	121	106
Limerick	284	238	225	149	150
Louth	158	185	155	128	135
Mayo	227	204	156	123	105
Meath	263	254	242	181	154
Roscommon/Longford	184	142	98	93	97
Sligo/Leitrim	157	112	110	78	87
Tipperary	339	288	247	189	176
Waterford	194	159	155	113	117
Westmeath	204	154	131	100	91
Wexford	233	223	183	93	117
Wicklow	138	126	137	105	68
Total	6692	5897	5492	4247	3819

These figures are based on incidents which occurred from 01/01/2017 to 31/12/2021, inclusive. I am advised by the Garda authorities that the above figures are based upon operational data from the Pulse system as was available on 25/02/2022 and is liable to change.

I am further advised that drink-driving detections refer to incidents which have a detection status of ‘Detected’ or ‘Resulted in Proceedings’. I am informed that drug-driving detections are not included in the above figures.