Drink-driving cases in Donegal adjourned pending Supreme Court ruling

A large number of drink-driving cases in Donegal have been adjourned pending the outcome of a Supreme Court decision.

The swathe of cases were adjourned en bloc at Letterkenny District Court this week.

Judge Emile Daly said that all matters awaiting a decision from the Supreme Court on a drink-driving matter would go back to June.

Judge Daly said it was her belief that a decision from the Supreme Court is awaited imminently.

All the matters awaiting the outcome of the ‘Ratinskis point’, will be mentioned again before Letterkenny District Court on June 8 for defendants to decide whether they will plead guilty or seek a hearing date.

The cases were being adjourned, said Judge Daly, “in the hope that we have a decision.”

Judge Daly added that anyone not represented by a legal practitioner, they would have to be informed by An Garda Siochana.

Last year, the High Court quashed a drink-driving conviction after the prosecution failed to lead evidence on the chain of custody from a blood sample.

Ms Justice Sara Phelan overturned the 2024 conviction of Andrejs Ratinskis in a case that centred on whether the Road Traffic Act, 2020’s statutory presumptions covered the blood sample in a period when it was being transferred between Newbridge Garda Station and the Medical Bureau of Road Safety.

The blood sample was posted and the evidence did not account for the storage of security at that time.

Ms Justice Phelan found that the provisions did not provide for a presumption that the integrity of the sample remained intact.