New CSO quarterly figures that record an 81% increase in drivers found driving under the influence of drugs over the past year confirm the growing problem of drug driving on our roads.

A survey last year by insurance group Hibernian reported that more than 20% of drivers under the age of 35 had driven under the influence of drugs. The Medical Bureau of Road Safety (MBRS) has estimated that more than 50% of drunk drivers may also be driving under the influence of drugs. There has also been nearly a fourfold increase in the number of specimans tested for drugs by the MBRS between 2004 and 2008.

Today’s CSO figures confirm this trend as there is an annual increase from 450 cases of drug driving at the end of the second quarter in 2008 to 815 incidents for the same period in 2009. However, this is clearly still a relatively small number of drug driving incidents compared to the drink driving figures. There is a welcome 17% decrease in the incidents of drink driving in the same period but there is clearly a much stronger range of enforcement measures in place targeting motorists driving under the influence of alcohol.

There is currently no roadside drug testing system in place in Ireland which would have a greater deterrent effect. But there are, however, a number of successful random roadside drug testing programmes in operation in the Australian states of Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania.

Yet, Transport Minister Noel Dempsey told me in a PQ reply in May last that there is no "feasible basis yet in Europe for the introduction of a scheme of preliminary roadside testing for drugs" and "that testing devices are still in protype stages."

Minister Dempsey must now address this matter in the upcoming Road Traffic Bill given the alarming drug driving statistics that have been released by the CSO today.