Mattie McGrath TD and those Drink Driving Comments!

Has Mattie McGrath (pictured above with the Taoiseach) been drinking I ask myself? I mean really? For anyone to make such a badly thought-out statement that drinking could actually be good for nervous drivers! Is this man be serious?

Aside from Fianna Fáil delivering this country into ruin; aside from closing childrens operating theatres: aside from all of that - this is the issue that Fianna Fáil back benchers choose to revolt on?

There is so much wrong with this whole argument that I scarcely know where to begin and I have to say that I am totally behind Noel Dempsey on this one.

This whole rural argument thing is getting ridiculous: what's wrong with rural farmers, who, Mr McGrath tells us have NO friends or neighbours in the world to speak of that they could share a lift with, heading down to the pub (his only social outlet on the planet and without which - if you follow the logic to its' illogical conclusion - said Farmer/rural dwellers life would cease to have any meaning) for a non-alcoholic beverage? Say a pot of tea, or a pint of rock-shandy? Same company. Same venue. No deathly alcohol influence on the drive home! No pedestrian left dead because of a swerve. No driver left paralysed because of impaired co-ordination.

There are scientific, validated tests demonstrating the effect that just one pint has on the average drivers behaviour. I have seen them. I was a member of the National Safety Council, the fore-runner of the RSA for many years and that committee did much work educating the public as to the dangers of drink driving.

The bottom line is that if people want to drink alcohol, they should not drive. And if they want to drive they should not drink alcohol. Is this cruel? Not if you are one of the many many families who have lost loved ones either through being the victim of a drink driver or through drinking and driving themselves. The sad fact is that drinking and driving causes death. After just one drink you are many times more likely to be involved in an accident than you are without any alcohol. FACT.

We have acknowledged for many years that we in this country have a very warped relationship with alcohol. We need to grow up. No-one is saying not to be social. No-one is even saying not to go to the local pub. Just plan not to drink and drive. That's all.

Will the family who lose their daughter, or uncle, or grandfather - directly as a result of someone who had just the one, killing or injuring them - think it's okay? Will they thank Mattie McGrath and his followers? Or will they think that perhaps it might have been worth the self-control of abstaining from that one pint? I think so.

Yes there are other problems and issues that need to be dealt with. But none of them take away from the fact that this one also needs to be dealt with.

This isn't make believe. Real people die as a result of drivers who have had just one drink. But that must be a price that Mattie McGrath thinks is worth paying.

I do not.