A ruling that breathalyser test statements were not valid if printed in the English language only, which had held up 1,400 alleged drink driving prosecutions, has been overturned by the Court of Appeal.
The Director of Public Prosecutions had appealed a District Court ruling which found that a failure to produce the other half of a statement showing breath-alcohol levels – in Irish - was not evidence at all.
Counsel for the DPP, Diarmaid McGuinness SC, had told the three-judge court that the case had its roots in a road traffic prosecution of MihaiAvadenei (29) with an address in Swords, Co Dublin.
Mr McGuinness said it related to a breath test machine, Evidenzer Irl, which reveals the levels of alcohol in a person's breath and produces two identical statements for immediate signature by the person and a garda. The statement would then be admissible under the road traffic act, he said.
Source: Ruaidhrí Giblin, Irish Independent, 10/05/16
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