Galway’s Garda Chief will learn this week if the city and county has been affected by the ‘breath tests’ scandal which has rocked the force nationally.
Chief Superintendent Tom Curley of the Galway Garda Division said he was “most disappointed” at the news that the number of roadside breath tests had been exaggerated by one million over the past five years.
He has requested a breakdown of the figures for his division.
Chief Supt Curley said he has sought the figures to see if there is a discrepancy, but because he is not in possession of them, it would be unfair to comment.
“I don’t know where I stand, whether [the overall statistics] are positive or negative,” he told a meeting of the Galway City Joint Policing Committee this week.
He said that since April 2016 when a new Garda IT system was introduced, two sets of readings (start and finish) from the ‘Dräger’ roadside breath test machines have to be supplied to Castlebar, where all details are entered into the ‘Pulse’ system.
“Before that, it was done by people on the ground,” he said.
He said he was aware since last year that checks were being carried out nationally.
Figures presented at the meeting showed there were 7,076 breath tests performed in Galway City last year, down eleven per cent from the 7,952 in 2015 – drunk driving offences remained the same at 166.
He said that last weekend alone, there were eleven drink drivers arrested in the Galway Garda Division. “It’s definitely not going away,” he said.
Fine Gael city councillor Padraig Conneely said “fake news” came to mind when he looked now at statistics being provided by the Gardaí in relation to breath tests, speeding and fixed charge penalty notices.
Chief Supt Curley said he asked for the statistics for Galway Garda Division on Sunday, and hopes to have them this week.
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