Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny moved last night to expel a party member who admitted on a local radio station that he was a drink-driver.
Tipperary councillor Michael Fitzgerald told TippFm yesterday that he drove home after having "about three or four pints".
Asked if he drove after drinking, Cllr Fitzgerald replied: "I do."
He also admitted to having lost his licence having failed a drink-driving test. When asked did he still think it was appropriate for him to drink and drive, Cllr Fitzgerald said: "I have never killed anybody."
The councillor, from Golden, Co Tipperary, also went on to suggest that road safety efforts were concentrated on the wrong drivers.
He said most fatal crashes involved 17- to 22-year-olds and happened between 2am and 9am and were as a result of speed.
"Don't tell me if I drink three pints and drive home I am going to put the boot to the floor. I'm not," he told the TippToday programme. Cllr Fitzgerald said the impact of the mandatory drink-driving regime by gardaí was damaging the social fabric of rural Ireland.
"It is a pity the culture and the way of living in rural Ireland as we knew it, as I grew up with . . . is being taken away. You have a squad car sitting outside the door of pubs at 9 o'clock at night, at 7 o'clock and you also have them there the morning after if a guy gets a lift home."
It was not possible to reach Cllr Fitzgerald for comment last night.
Mr Kenny spoke to Cllr Fitzgerald last night. The party leader intends referring the matter to the executive council of the party, recommending that the party whip be removed from Cllr Fitzgerald. The executive council will meet in two weeks.
"The law of the land is the law of land and it has to be upheld and to be seen to be upheld," Mr Kenny said last night.
Noel Brett, chief executive of the Road Safety Authority, denied that enforcement efforts were targeting the wrong drivers but said he was not surprised at such an attitude.
"While I do not want to comment on any particular case, I do believe there are people out there who try to justify their own behaviour. All the medical evidence is that even one drink affects reaction time, especially driving on rural roads."
Mr Brett said in the four months to the end of October this year, 110 people died in crashes, 30 less than the same four month period in 2005. "This just happens to be exactly when random alcohol testing was introduced. That's a 21 per cent fall in deaths."
He said Garda research showed that 60 per cent of fatalities occurred on rural roads, making them the most dangerous. "The reality is enforcement is starting to kick in and people can't have it every way. The new measures are going to hurt unless people make personal choices and change behaviour," Mr Brett said.
