The Supreme Court has ruled it was lawful for a garda to detain an accused for 20 minutes at a Garda station in order to observe him before requiring him to provide breath samples through an intoxilyser.
An intoxilyser is an apparatus designed to determine the concentration of alcohol in a person's breath.
A large number of legal cases have been taken arising from the operation of the intoxilyser and yesterday's decision underlines that each such case will be determined on its own particular circumstances.
The decision follows an important Supreme Court judgment in February last which stipulated that Garda guidelines, which allowed for a person arrested for drink driving to be observed for 20 minutes before a sample was given to gardaí, had no basis in law.
In February, the Supreme Court said the case before it was judged on its own merits, but there was speculation at the time that it could mean several hundred drink-driving prosecutions were invalid.
Giving the Supreme Court judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Murray said he could not see that there was anything unlawful or oppressive in adopting procedures to ensure that when the breath test was taken, it was effective or reliable. Indeed, the State could be more readily criticised if it did not follow accepted procedures necessary to ensure an effective and valid result in each case when the intoxilyser was used.
The five-judge court was giving judgment on a case referred to it by a Circuit Court judge arising from the prosecution of a man for failing to provide two specimens of his breath, having been arrested on suspicion of driving with an excess quantity of alcohol, contrary to section 13(2) of the Road Traffic Act.