HEATHER HUMPHREYS HAS said she “absolutely supported” the introduction of legislation to impose stricter penalties on drink drivers, after former transport minister Shane Ross said she was “absolutely opposed” to it. 

The Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill brought in automatic disqualification for all drink-drivers caught with more than 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

It also made it an offence for car owners to allow a learner drive to use their car unaccompanied.

The Bill passed through the Oireachtas in 2018, with 75 TDs voting in favour and eight TDs voting against. Humphreys voted in favour of the Bill. 

However, Ross suggested in last week’s Sunday Independent that Fine Gael’s presidential candidate was one of several rural ministers who was critical of his Bill inside Cabinet and said she should be challenged on it. 

Speaking on Morning Ireland, Ross said there was a large number of people in Cabinet at the time who were opposed to the legislation and that Humphreys “made it clear” that she was one of them. “She was very, very prominent amongst those groups,” he said.

“She made it clear at Cabinet meetings. The newspapers carried a large number of stories about it, and I had contact with her about it before the meeting, I asked her to keep quiet at the Cabinet meeting and not to say anything in opposition to it,” he said.

Others who raised opposition to the Bill at the time due to what they said would be adverse effects on rural Ireland were Michael and Danny Healy-Rae, with the latter calling it “a sad day for rural Ireland” when the Bill passed in the Dáil. 

Ross said it was legitimate for those opposing the bill to feel that people in rural Ireland who did not have the same access to public transport as those in urban areas would be unfairly penalised by the bill, but he said “that doesn’t justify allowing people to drive over the limit without disqualification”. 

Asked why he was raising the matter now after seven years, Ross said:

I’m raising it specifically because she is a candidate, and I think it’s a question of which she should be asked serious questions.

He said her vote in favour of the legislation was “the reaction to having a [party] whip put on her”, adding: “I don’t know whether she thinks what she felt in Cabinet, or whether she thinks what she voted for, and that’s what I want to know.”

‘Nobody should be drinking and driving’

Speaking yesterday, Humphreys said she “absolutely supported that legislation”.

“I voted for it on two occasions, and nobody should be drinking and driving,” she told RTÉ.

“I think about all the families that have been impacted by accidents and lives have been lost. So as I say, Nobody should be drinking and driving.”

Asked if her position had changed over the years, the former Cavan-Monaghan TD said it had not.

“My position has always been very, very clear. People should not drink and drive because it causes accidents, and I had many discussions with Shane Ross on improving rural transport and investing more in our roads as well, because that improves safety on our roads is when you have better quality roads.

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“We know that there have been many lives lost on many roads throughout this country, and when safety measures are brought in, it reduces the risk of deaths on our roads,” she said.

She also said she respected the Constitution “and I respect Cabinet confidentiality”.

Tánaiste Simon Harris was also asked about the matter on RTÉ’s News at One yesterday. 

“I genuinely don’t recall those Cabinet discussions – though we’re not meant to discuss them,” the Fine Gael leader said.

Harris said voters expect their elected representatives “to question, to scrutinise, to prod, to probe, and then to make a decision”, adding that the legislation was “discussed and debated at length”.

“Ultimately, at the end of the day, this legislation was passed without dissent, in Shane Ross’s words, from a Cabinet that Heather was in, and was voted on in Dáil Éireann twice, and she voted in favour of the legislation.”