Prosecutions related to alcohol
Lipper requested prosecution figures for under-age drinking, serving alcohol to intoxicated customers, and drunken driving; Collins supplied figures for July 1977 to March 1978, noting withdrawals after the breathalyser law was suspended.
asked the Minister for Justice (a) the number of prosecutions that have been instituted for offences in connection with under-age drinking since June 1977; (b) the number of proprietors of licensed premises who have been prosecuted for serving alcoholic drink to people already under the influence of drink since June 1977, and (c) the number of prosecutions that have been instituted in the same period for drunken driving.
Comment on this
The reply is in the form of a tabular statement which, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to circulate with the Official Report.
The figures sought in the question are as follows and relate to the period from 1 July 1977 to 31 March 1978:
*On 20 October the Director of Public Prosecutions issued a direction that the operation of the excess blood/alcohol concentration legislation (the breathalyser law) be suspended. On his instructions, 341 of the 675 prosecutions mentioned at (iii) and 11 of the 25 mentioned at (iv) were withdrawn. No new prosecutions in respect of the offences at (iii), (iv), (v) or (vi) have been initiated since 20 October 1977.
36.