Driver arrested six times in one year as bureau warns over repeat intoxicated motorists

Gordon Deegan

One driver was arrested six times by gardaí last year on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

The 2025 annual report for the Medical Bureau of Road Safety also reveals the youngest male driver arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence was aged 14, and the oldest driver was aged 95.

The youngest female driver arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated was 16.

The report also shows that the highest alcohol level found in blood in 2025 was 450 mg/100ml, which is nine times over the legal limit for fully licensed drivers of 50 mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood for driving.

In his Foreword to the report, Director of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, Prof Denis Cusack, said the concern and real public safety danger around repeat and high-risk intoxicated driving offenders remains to be addressed legislatively, in the prosecutorial and judicial process.

The report states that “the level of recidivism detected remains significant, with 237 drivers arrested twice in 2025”.

In addition to the driver arrested six times in 2025, 12 drivers were arrested four times and 28 drivers were arrested three times.

Chairman of the Medical Bureau of Safety, Sean Quigley, said that it is an unfortunate reality that alcohol and drugs continue to play a huge role in road traffic accidents, in many cases causing fatalities.

Prof Cusack said that in 2025, 185 lives were tragically lost in road collisions in Ireland and in the region of not less than 1,500 serious injuries suffered arising from road collisions in Ireland

All samples are sent by gardaí to the Medical Bureau of Road Safety for analysis, and Prof Cusack said that the number of specimens received in 2025 for alcohol analysis surpassed 6,000 for the first time in decades.

The 6,087 total is a 3pc increase on the 5,900 specimens received in 2024.

The number of toxicology blood and urine specimens analysed last year totalled 4,477, which was an increase of 128 on the 4,348 specimens analysed for drugs in 2024.

The number of people breath-tested last year totalled 3,257, which was down 323 on the 3,580 total for 2024.

Prof Cusack said: “Alcohol remains the greatest single intoxicant in drivers by number. The median alcohol level in blood in 2025 was 157mg/100ml when the specimens with no trace of alcohol were excluded.

He said: “These figures have sadly changed very little over the past decades."

“Alcohol intoxicated driving thus remains a very large and significant danger on Irish roads, with so many drivers driving when several times over the legal limits for the different categories of driver, including the lower limits set for the learner, novice and professional or heavy vehicle driver.

Prof Cusack said that the three most commonly detected intoxicant drugs, other than alcohol, in 2025 were again cannabis, cocaine and benzodiazepines.

He said that “the frequent finding of combinations of drugs and drugs with alcohol remains of enormous concern. The types of drugs being used by drivers is constantly changing, reflecting the patterns of drug use more widely in society”.

Bureau chairman Quigley said data shows there has been a significant increase in the presence of cocaine, up from 43% in 2019 to 58% in 2025. The presence of cannabis has dropped to 55% in 2025, down from 66% in 2019.

The report shows that the most prevalent time for taking specimens was between 10pm to 2am, accounting for 64% of all specimens taken.