RSS
John Spain


comment on article Make a comment
print this article Print
email this articleE-mail

JOHN SPAIN

Does Irish government support driving, or drinking?

By
John Spain

Published Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 1:54 PM
Updated Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 3:02 PM

Vote now - Buzz this up!


Does Irish government support driving, or drinking? | IrishCentral




Drink driving has been a controversial subject of conversation in Ireland this week.

The former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, talking about being in government and holding on to power, once famously remarked that "you get over the big issues, it's the little things that trip you up."

It was a little thing that tripped him up.  And it was a little thing that just over a week ago threatened the future of the government here.

It wasn't the bitter division in the country on what to do about our massive budget deficit, with the unions now planning national strikes if the government goes ahead with the planned cutbacks. Having subjected the readers of this column to lessons in national economics for weeks now, we're going to leave discussion of that piece of insanity for another day.  

This column is going to be an economics free zone this week. So if it wasn't the crisis in the Irish economy, what was the threat to the government last week?  

It was the little matter of drink.  Or drinking and driving, to be precise. 

The Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey announced to the Fianna Fail party just over a week ago that he was going to change the law to reduce the blood alcohol limit for drivers from 80 mgs to 50 mgs, which would put most people over the limit after just one drink. The proposal was greeted with outrage at a meeting of the Fianna Fail parliamentary party, with up to 25 Fianna Fail backbenchers angrily arguing against the move at the meeting in the Dail (Parliament).

They had put up with the legislation to save the banks which is going to cost taxpayers billions.  They had defended the proposed cuts in state spending among their voters.  They had swallowed a lot of bitter but necessary economic medicine in the past year. 

But this was a step too far. This was so stupid, so ridiculous, so unnecessary at a time when people are putting up with so much grief, they shouted. They threatened to rebel on the vote in the Dail, to bring the government down if necessary.  

And Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen and his government, who now have a fragile majority, decided to find a way out. Having been through so much in the past year and with so many major decisions of national importance ahead, there was no way Cowen was going to let a "little thing" like drink put his government in jeopardy.  

So, leaving his high-minded minister for transport looking red-faced, he told the next Dail meeting that, while everyone was in favor of measures to reduce road deaths, there was a need for coordination with Northern Ireland, where the limit is still 80 mgs. The whole thing would have to be planned.

Or in other words, you can expect no change in the law here any time soon, and certainly not for the next year or more. So that took care of that "little thing."  

Predictably, of course, the politically correct lobby here went crazy.  There were outraged editorials in the papers decrying the government's weakness.

1 2 3 4 Next page >

Vote now - Buzz this story up!


Does Irish government support driving, or drinking? | IrishCentral


print this article Print
email this articleE-mail


Be the first to make a comment.







remember me on this computer
forget your password?     
IrishCentral.com is also home to Irish Voice and Irish America magazine