More than 12,000 people are disqualified from driving, Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe has told the Dáil. The Minister said figures up to September 29th showed 12,248 people in Ireland are prohibited from driving, under legislation dating between 1961 and 2010.

He said 140 people have been killed on the roads this year, or four less than the same period last year.

But the Minister could not accept calls for the automatic suspension of the licence of a driver involved in a fatal incident, if they subsequently failed a breathalyser test.

Mr Donohoe told Independent TD John Halligan that under the Constitution it was a "matter for the courts to make a disqualification order preventing a person from validly holding a driver's licence for a period of time".

Driving and drugs

The Minister said however that in the forthcoming Road Traffic Bill he intended to deal with the issue of driving under the influence of drugs.

Mr Halligan had called on the Government to accept proposals by Christine Donnelly from Waterford, whose son Brendan (24) died in 2009 with his friend Lee Salkeld (26) while travelling to Cork airport.

A man was later sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and disqualified from driving for 15 years after admitting dangerous driving. Mr Halligan said the court heard that “he had consumed 20 beers, vodka, Aftershock (shots) and had snorted a line of cocaine before the accident”.

The Waterford TD said Ms Donnelly was campaigning for “Brendan’s law” to change the current drink driving legislation so that the licence of a driver who fails a breathalyser test was set aside. Mr Halligan insisted this would be “without prejudice once they are charged”.

He said that between 1990 and 2006, a total of 7,078 people died in road traffic incidents of which 35 per cent or 2,462 were alcohol-related.