THERE IS A person who was arrested for drink-driving 11 times in a single year. Not over a lifetime. Not over a decade of poor decisions. In one year.

The Medical Bureau of Road Safety’s annual report for 2024 (the latest we have) confirms that in the same year, one driver recorded a blood alcohol level of 428 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 50.

The MBRS data shows 263 drivers were arrested twice for intoxicated driving in 2024, which is an increase of 8% on 2023. Thirty-six were arrested three times. And seven were arrested between five and 11 times, with one person accounting for all 11. These are not abstract statistics. 

Across all those arrested and tested in 2024, the median blood alcohol level was 142 milligrams per 100 millilitres — among those who tested positive. That is nearly three times the legal limit, as a median. The highest recorded level in urine was 525 milligrams. The youngest driver arrested was 14 years old.

Ireland had 185 road deaths in 2025, up from 171 the year before, and 155 the year before that. The European trend, for contrast, is going the other way.

Norway has the fewest road deaths in Europe with 16 road deaths per million people; Sweden is second with 20. Ireland is ranked seventh. Thirty-seven per cent of drivers killed on Irish roads whose toxicology results were available tested positive for alcohol, and Ireland has the lowest level of roadside breath testing in the EU.

Into this picture, enter the alcolock — a device that has been around for decades, works reliably, is mandated across a growing number of countries, and has been fitted to every single vehicle in one Irish company’s fleet since 2008.

Matthews Coach Hire, based in Inishkeen in Co Monaghan, describes itself as the only passenger transport company in........

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