An Cathaoirleach: The purpose of today's meeting is an engagement with the chairperson designate of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, Mr. Sean Quigley. He is very welcome. The joint committee will receive an overview of his role and plans for the organisation...

I thank Mr. Quigley for taking the time to appear before the committee this morning. The bureau has such an important role in ensuring road safety in Ireland by detecting and analysing drink- and drug-related driving, supplying and approving testing equipment and contributing to our road safety strategy. I invite Mr. Quigley to make his opening statement.

Mr. Seán Quigley: I thank the Cathaoirleach and committee members for the invitation to appear before them. I will begin by giving a short opening statement outlining some background information about the role of the bureau and my experience.

The Medical Bureau of Road Safety is a corporate body established in 1968 under the Road Traffic Act of that year. The functions of the bureau include receipt and analysis for intoxicants of specimens of blood and urine, issuing of certificates of analysis, provision of equipment to the Garda, approval, supply and testing of equipment to the Garda for alcohol and drug testing, research on drink and drug driving and development of forensic toxicology testing. The board of the bureau comprises five members who are appointed by the Minister for Transport. The current board members are the director, Professor Denis Cusack, Professor Patricia Fitzpatrick, Ms Joan O’Brien, Dr. Denis McCauley and me, as board chair. The director is responsible for managing the day-to-day business of the bureau. The bureau has had an agreement with UCD since 1968 for the use by the bureau of its staff, premises and equipment for the majority of its functions. All testing is carried out in the bureau’s UCD facility on the Belfield campus with shared services.

The bureau is a service organisation and in order to provide an efficient service it must know the requirements of its clients. The bureau communicates regularly with the Department of Transport and the Garda National Roads Policing Bureau about the service being provided and the legislative and operational changes that are required to continue to provide a reliable and efficient service in support of the road traffic legislation and the Government’s road safety strategy. In terms of funding, the bureau receives an annual grant from the Department of Transport.

It is the work of An Garda Síochána that dictates the volume and nature of the work that is carried out by the bureau; in other words, the number of specimens forwarded and whether it is alcohol analysis, drug analysis, or both, that is required. The analytical work and associated activities require highly trained and competent staff. The reputation of the bureau has been built up over the last 57 years of good scientific and administrative practice and each staff member works hard to maintain the high standard required of a national forensic laboratory. The bureau has a focused input to the current road safety strategy, especially with respect to in actions 23 and 119 on alcohol interlock devices and this was successfully actioned in 2024 and 2025 by the testing and approval of five such devices. These devices have the potential to be one of the most significant developments in road safety in decades when rolled out on a statutory basis, recognising that in the region of 30% of road traffic crashes have alcohol presence as a contributory factor. The number of specimens received in 2024 for alcohol analysis continued at a high level of just under 6,000, at 5,900. Specimens received for drugs analysis reached 4,348, which is up from 3,873 the previous year, representing an increase of 12%. There are 81 drug types targeted for testing. Quality assurance is critical for the work of the bureau. There is an annual accreditation from the Irish National Accreditation Board, which I am glad to say the bureau achieved once again in 2025.

In 2024 174 lives were tragically lost in road collisions in Ireland. Alcohol remains the most frequently detected intoxicant in drivers. The levels detected have changed very little over the past decade. Alcohol-intoxicated driving thus remains a very real and significant danger on Irish roads, with many drivers driving when several times over the legal limit. For intoxicants other than alcohol, the three most commonly detected drugs in 2024 were cannabis, cocaine and benzodiazepines. The levels detected are multiples of the set legal limits and continue to reflect the high levels found in drug-intoxicated drivers which, like alcohol intoxication, are a major contributory factor to road traffic collisions. I will not go into the specifics here but there has been a slight decrease in the detection of cannabis, whereas cocaine has increased. I do not think that comes as any surprise.

My professional background is as a chartered accountant. I have held a number of senior leadership roles, including in the Courts Service and Trinity College. I was the director of finance in the Courts Service for 20 years between 1999 and 2019. I also have a professional diploma in corporate governance. I have extensive experience as a non-executive director of a number of State boards and committees. I have also been a board member of a number of not-for-profit organisations. As members know, I was appointed chair of the bureau with effect from October 2024 by the Minister for Transport. I had been a member of the board since November 2020. Other non-executive roles I have include membership of the board of Tusla. I am also a member of the NAMA audit committee. I currently chair the board of Drinkaware. My experience as a non-executive director in different sectors, combined with my experience as a senior executive enables me to bring a wide range of experiences and perspectives to the role of chair of the MBRS board.

As the newly appointed chair of the board I will seek to continue the excellent work of my predecessors and work to ensure that the bureau continues to achieve its mission to provide a high quality national forensic service in alcohol and drug detection in support of the effective operation of road traffic legislation. I will work with the director, Professor Cusack, and other board members to ensure we continue to review how we operate on an ongoing basis and to ensure we comply with the code of practice for the governance of State bodies. I will also work with the director and other board members to ensure we continue to implement our five-year strategic plan and objectives, which include: to continue to provide a high quality national forensic service in alcohol and drug analysis; to maintain our ISO 17025 accredited status; to adapt and incorporate into bureau activities any legislative requirements; to increase Garda capacity to detect intoxicated drivers by continuing to provide drug and alcohol testing devices; and to assist with education, enforcement and legislation measures as set out in the Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030. We will also obviously work with other key stakeholders, including the Minister for Transport and his officials, An Garda Síochána and other key stakeholders, to ensure the effective discharge of the bureau’s statutory and strategic remit.

An Cathaoirleach: I thank Mr. Quigley. Deputy Daly wishes to go first.

Deputy Pa Daly: I thank Mr. Quigley very much for coming in. If I had known he was involved in finance in the Courts Service I might have had a few extra questions about Tralee Courthouse and how we could save money by refurbishing the current one rather than moving it to another side of the town.

It is staggering that 81 different types of drugs are detected. Is that in the last year or is it over the last number of years? Either way, if there is anything to get people off the roads and onto public transport, it might be realising there are over 5,900 alcohol detections and 4,348 drug specimens received in the last year alone, and 81 different drug types. There were 174 in 2024 and in the year to date about 125. Are the 5,900 alcohol specimens and the 4,348 drug specimens mutually exclusive or in some cases were both drugs and alcohol involved?

Mr. Seán Quigley: The 4,348 is within the 5,900. The 5,900 is the total number of specimens that were submitted. The testing process looks at alcohol and then looks for the presence of drugs. Some 4,348 of the 5,900 were tested for the presence of drugs.

Deputy Pa Daly: They were tested for it. Mr. Quigley mentioned alcohol interlock devices. Are the machines used by the bureau being developed all the time in order that new drugs can be detected? I presume they would not have been able to detect 81 different types of drug in people's systems 20 years go.

Mr. Seán Quigley: That is part of the work of the technical staff in the bureau. There are 81 drugs there. It is possible that they will come across new drugs that were previously unrecognised. There are still three main drugs, as I outlined earlier. The important thing is to keep abreast of any new drugs that may be in use of which we were not previously aware.

Regarding the alcohol interlock device referred to by the Deputy, the bureau has a role in testing and approving those devices. They are submitted by companies which want to have their systems approved in order that we will approve them. They are not mandatory. A number of transport companies use them on a voluntary basis but they are not statutorily required....

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