Road Traffic Act 2010
Obligation to provide breath, blood or urine specimens following arrest under Part 2.
12.— (1) Where a person is arrested under section 4(8), 5(10), 6(4), 9(4), 10(7) or F31[11(6)] of this Act or section 52(3), 53(5), 106(3A) or 112(6) of the Principal Act, a member of the Garda Síochána may, at a Garda Síochána station F32[or hospital], do either or both of the following—
(a) require the person to provide, by exhaling into an apparatus for determining the concentration of alcohol in the breath, 2 specimens of his or her breath and may indicate the manner in which he or she is to comply with the requirement,
(b) require the person either—
(i) to permit a designated doctor or designated nurse to take from the person a specimen of his or her blood, or
(ii) at the option of the person, to provide for the designated doctor or designated nurse a specimen of his or her urine,
and if the doctor or nurse states in writing—
(I) that he or she is unwilling, on medical grounds, to take from the person or be provided by him or her with the specimen to which the requirement in either of the foregoing subparagraphs related, or
(II) that the person is unable or unlikely within the period of time referred to in section 4 or 5, as the case may be, to comply with the requirement,
the member may make a requirement of the person under this paragraph in relation to the specimen other than that to which the first requirement related.
(2) Subject to section 22, a person who refuses or fails to comply immediately with a requirement under subsection (1)(a) commits an offence.
(3) Subject to section 22, a person who, following a requirement under subsection (1)(b)—
(a) refuses or fails to comply with the requirement, or
(b) refuses or fails to comply with a requirement of a designated doctor or designated nurse in relation to the taking under that subsection of a specimen of blood or the provision under that subsection of a specimen of urine,
commits an offence.
(4) A person who commits an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.
(5) In a prosecution for an offence under this Part it shall be presumed, until the contrary is shown, that an apparatus provided by a member of the Garda Síochána for the purpose of enabling a person to provide 2 specimens of breath under this section is an apparatus for determining the concentration of alcohol in the breath.
(6) Section 1(1) of the Probation of Offenders Act 1907 does not apply to an offence under this section.
Annotations
Amendments:
F31
Substituted (31.07.2023) by Road Traffic and Roads Act 2023, s. 13(f), S.I. No. 392 of 2023.
F32
Inserted (28.10.2011) by Road Traffic (No. 2) Act 2011 (28/2011), s. 9(d), S.I. No. 542 of 2011.
Editorial Notes:
E26
Mandatory disqualification period for persons convicted of offence under section prescribed (6.04.2014) by Taxi Regulation Act 2013 (37/2013), ss. 30(3)(e), (ii), S.I. No. 163 of 2014.