New guidelines expected

Gardaí are continuing to ask people suspected of drink-driving to wait 20 minutes before taking a breath test, but new operational guidelines are expected to be issued within days, it emerged yesterday.

The move follows last Tuesday's Supreme Court ruling that no justification had been provided for a delay of 20 minutes by gardaí before a man was breathalysed. The court ruled that the man was not, therefore, in lawful detention.

Future guidelines are expected to concentrate on medical and manufacturer's recommendations for use of the "intoxilisers", the breath-testing machine used by the Garda.

The guidelines are expected to stipulate that the individual to be breathalysed is informed of the reasons for the 20-minute wait and that in any future challenge which cites a delay, the medical and manufacturer's recommendations are produced in court.

Garda sources are confident all future challenges can be successfully defended by using this justification for the 20-minute wait and claim predictions of a "free-for-all" among suspects who seek a copy-cat defence are "wide of the mark".

The manufacturers of the "intoxiliser" breath-testing units used by the gardaí, Lion Laboratories of Wales, said the reason for the wait is that testing within eight minutes of the last drink could result in an inaccurate - usually too high - indication of a person's blood/alcohol level.

Dr Paul Williams of Lion Laboratories said the waiting period is to ensure that there is no residual alcohol in the mouth and throat remaining from the last drink.

If such mouth alcohol is present the intoxiliser will give a reading clearly indicating mouth alcohol, which would be insufficient to secure a conviction in most courts, Dr Williams said told The Irish Times yesterday.

While Lion Laboratories says 90 per cent of mouth alcohol has evaporated after eight minutes, it recommends a wait of 20 minutes in the interests of certainty.